TarTar's Return (SWP Productions)
by SuperbWritingClub
Summary: One year later after the events of octo expansion, the world was at peace. Until one-day Squidbeak Platoon started to have a bad reputation. Was it just a simple prank? Or was there something more sinister going on?
1. Chapter I

A thick presence of darkness covered an eerie room. It was coated with metallic air and a heavy teal glow barely illuminating such a chilling and haunted chamber. A single step could shake the dead silence like a pin dropping, and it did indeed.

An adult cephalopod enters, with a monitor semi-lightening up the room just a bit more, and yet the ambiance looked even more dreary. He sits in the chair before the monitor with a smirk slowly painting his face.

The monitor reboots. Steady and even footsteps suddenly dropped to yet another silence. The adult mollusk was ready. Whatever he had planned started to commence.

He pushes his glasses up, carrying the monitor's reflection. His lips curled back into a sinister smirk and his silky voice sliced the dense air one last time: "Now... we really begin, Commander [REDACTED]."

Skylar Toryoshi, also known as Agent 7, works as an agent and lives in the agents HQ. Despite the constant missions and colleges he had living with him, he was pretty lonely and like it that way. His quiet mannerisms keep his life in control in between the madness of the world that attempts to break him down. He loves the HQ. He loves his job, and it seems like the people who look up to the Squidbeak Platoon love him as well.

Keith, Aka Agent 8 was in his room. He's a poet, a quiet one at that. He was writing about something that happened a year ago during his time in the Metro. A television blared throughout the HQ. He was frustrated because he couldn't think, but he noticed the name of the HQ was being tainted. That grabbed Keith's attention.

A trainee was working with an agent for the time being was callee Tina, a young squid that was an aspiring weapon designer. She got off of her cute laptop and stepped downstairs to the main room and looks at the tv captured her undivided attention.

The New's was clicked on by Lucas, AKA Agent 6. He was just lying on the couch flicking through channels on the TV. He stopped on the news channel where the presenter was calling the NSP a terrorist organization. "Uhh, guys? You might wanna look at this." His pubescent voice called out.

"A man had a conspiracy theory about the Squidbeak Platoon at 6:51 am about the heroes we look up to, The Agents of the Recently opened 'New Squidbeak Platoon' (NSP) has been plotting silently to plot against us as terrorists," An octoling woman spoke out, "This man anonymously started posting videos of sketchy activity of these so-called 'heroes.'" She added, "These posts were sent on KettleTube as a result. Do you still believe these agents are heroes? Are this man's conspiracies true? More coming up on Sunshine News later today."  
-

Keith stepped over to the Television in stunned disbelief.

Kris, Agent 9, was staring at the large screen at Inkopolis Square, in his civilian wear, "$& #..."

"What kind of..." Keith tilted his.

While others glared in shock and awe, Mirror Aka Agent 5, was sleeping like a log on the couch with his goggles over his face oblivious to it all, and Dusk, Agent 4, was playing video games with a sheawnwitch in his mouth.

The young Tina shook her head in denial. "Why is this, we're not assassins."

Throughout this revelation inside the HQ, Skylar was idle in inkopolis square, relaxing and writing in his journal just when he looked over at the squares TV "No... That can't be true can it?" He got up and walked closer to the TV muttering to himself on how this couldn't be true."

Keith Intercom goes off as a trainee's voice goes off: "Hey guys did you watched the news?"

Kris out of hyperfocused instinct rushed into the squid hole and to HQ, continually repeating, "$& #! $& T! $& #!"

Sun Rendezvous with Kris and followed, however, the moment Sun met up with the rest, he started up the stove in the kitchen and started to make a pancake batter.

Octavo would be in his snowglobe asleep

"Yes, I did. And I am very concerned!" Lucas said while pacing around the floor "The people believe the media and the media just called us terrorists and now they're against us and IM FREAKING THE $& # OUT!"

Keith tried to set up his collective mood as much as he could. "We'll need to save our reputation," Keith muttered.

Kris turned on his intercom, "We all need to meet up, STAT!"

Hearing the Intercom Skylar panicked and notice Kris run and followed after him "what the fuck is happening"

Eventually, Mirror woke up and was livid "SHUT UP! I'm trying to sleep!"

Keith slapped the daylights out of Mirror

"MIRROR THIS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN SLEEP" Lucas Scolded.

Kris enters the room abruptly, "$& #!"

"We have an emergency meeting dumbass! Someone's throwing our name into the mud calling us terrorist, and due to your lack of concern, I'd say you were the one who did it!" Keith jokingly accused.

Mirror punched Keith on the shoulder after getting up aggressively "Hey! I may always be a jerk, but a terrorist?! ...I'm still trying to achieve that!" he said jokingly.

"Cod damn! Just act like an Agent for once in your miserable life," he stepped away while trying to contact Agent 3.

"Is Agent 3 contactable?" Kris asked Keith, only to finally notice Sun making Pancakes as well as Skylar.

Mirror was irate, "SUN NOW'S NOT THE TIME TO BE MAKING PANCAKES!"

"IM HUNGRY $& #%! Sun sassed.

"So far no, she's in a mission with the SquidSisters." Keith replied to Kris, ignoring the confrontation for now.

"Well, $& #. They're in some serious danger if they're caught in public." Kris replied.

Skylar stood by the doorway "can we all just calm down... Please?"

"NO!" Sun screeched then calmed down after seeing Skylar's death stare, "I-I mean yeah sure..."

"They're in the Valley so they should be... "Okay," Keith reassured, rolling his eyes as the two butted heads.

Octavio just sigh and knocked on the snow globe

"SUN, I WILL STICK MY HAND SO FAR UP YOU'RE $& I'LL USE YOU AS A PUPPET!" Mirror finally snapped.

Keith takes a deep breath, trying to calm down. "Skylar's right let's calm down and put our heads together. How can we save our reputation?"

"I vote assassination!" Lucas shouted in panic.

"Me too!" Sun voted from the Kitchen, finishing his cooking.

Skylar sighed and facepalmed "are Keith and I the only sane people here? Keith? Any ideas?"

"We'll need to search the area without sticking out," Keith demanded, "Hiding in hoodies, making disguises until we find our culprits. We also need some fake identities."

"Hoodies? I got you covered! I own literally every hoodie known to cephalopod kind!" Lucas boasts, showing his massive collection of hoodies in every color of the rainbow.

The meeting eventually escalated into a chaotic bunch as Mirror and Sun were starting to lash out at each other. Sun's pancake flew over to Kris, causing him to go ballistic at the duo. Poor Keith was just trying to get everyone to listen.

Suddenly the gaming and innocent Agent 4 stepped into the room seeing the chaos and clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.

Kris looked to Dusk. Lucas turned his head towards Dusk as well. Keith's attention was added.

"This... This is a me-" Skylar's mouthed, as Keith shut it.

"Now. Keith, what is our game plan?" Dusk asked.

"Thanks, Dusk," He patted Dusk little head as he giggled like a small child, "Once again, we'll need to search the area to find our culprit, From the Squidbeak itself, to out in the open of Inkopolis to the Canyon to the Valley. We also need to make Fake IDs, which would be easy, since our Records don't exist anymore."

"The fake ID's can only last for so long..." Skylar started mumbling.

"Then finding the Culprit needs to be as quick as possible." Keith countered.

"I'll go for the valley, I was born there so I practically know the place inside out" Lucas announced

"I'll go with Lucas," Sun added.

"I'll be in the outskirts, Pearl and Marina trust me so I'll be able to get more information," Keith claimed

"Alright. Skylar and I will be in downtown Inkopolis." Kris demanded.

"But we need to make sure none of us get captured on the way, Lucas."

"I've got some old octoling armor in my room, we can blend in with that when we get to the valley" Lucas said to Sun quietly.

"Ok" Sun replied.

Skylar smiled "Time with Kris?...sure" He muttered under his breath. If anyone ever gave Skylar any joy outside of silence, it would be his close friend Kris.

Sun walked to his room to search for something.

Mirror looked at Octavio with suspicion. "maybe he had something to do with it."

Keith sighed "He's been in that snow globe for 3 years, I don't think he'd do much, but I'll admit Mirror, you are smart, no one is 100% trustworthy at the moment." Keith praised Mirror.

Octavio banged on the glass in anger cracking it out of the rage of Keith's comment.

"Mirror, Dusk, examine Octavio's or the HQ's behavior."

"Yeah whatever," Mirror halfhearted

"Roger 8!" Dusk replied with enthusiasm.

Sun came back with bombs like the ones from the metro. These bombs can be explored with a code word and only your voice. Sun gave everyone some of those bombs but stopped by Keith.

"What are you doing?!" Keith held onto one of the small bombs.

Lucas went into his room and brought out three things. Two sets of octoling armor for himself and Sun, as well as a toolbox for unknown reasons

Skylar held up a bomb "Sun.. if people see us wearing these they'll think we're suicide bombers... Which won't help at all."

"O-Oh right," Sun took them all back. "More things to add on for our now proclaimed, 'Terrorist organization'"

Lucas slipped on the octoling armor that was taken from his room. "Huh, I guess I still fit into this."

Keith rushed into his bedroom to pull out some makeup he was using from "Hot Akanni's" and put on some fake contacts to change his eye color. Then he put some makeup to hide the scar. The then put on his Rockingberg Gear; the first gear he ever had the first time he stepped foot in Inkopolis.

"Alright, Sun lets head off. I've got a super jump spot to the valley not too far from here. C'mon." Lucas demanded.

Sun grabbed his dynamo and slipped onto his octoling gear. Sun packed up what was left of his pancakes and put them inside what was bag he added to his attire's roster on his person. "On it!"

Soon after, Lucas leads Sun to the super jump spot. The two of them fly off to Octo Valley.

Kris puts on a hoodie with some sweatpants, "This looks casual." he thought.

Skylar chuckled nervously, blushing furiously, "Y-yeah it does!"

"R-right!" Kris replied, "Let's go..."

Skylar sighed in relief. He will save what is left on what he adores. His new life, his new friends, and his new job is currently in danger, and he won't let it go down into ruin without a fight. That is basically who he is as a person:

A fighter.


	2. Chapter II

Agent 5 was Mirror, And the well-beloved Agent 4 was Dusk. Mirror was a boy of brawn and jaded thought. He was at least smart and unable to have anything distract him. Dusk, however, was a child of thought and wonder. Even though he was 14, he was treated like a child because, well, he was one. Everyone loved babysitting him, and he was a joy to many. The grocery store is a quiet one. At least it was that day, of course, there were murmurs and newspapers centered around The New Squidbeak Platoon. Due to that, Mirror and Dusk wore disguises as Keith informed them.

A simple-minded clerk happened to stumble by and saw the agents, to him they seemed lost. "Welcome, How may I help you?" asked the two, he had a strain on his smile, and his teeth looked like they were crunching.

"Could... you help me find the frozen food aisle?" Mirrors eyes shined like pearls, his pupils barely seen, if he had any at all.

"C-certainly sir!" The clerk replied, leading him.

A strange, Carmel skinned, pink-haired octoling with a ponytail in the back was glancing around the food store as well. "Hm..." Her hum a sweet tune: her voice was soft and yet raw like a baby chick. She was scanning cereal aisle, her eyes a soft grey and sparkled of clear innocence.

Dusk with his spaced-out self bumped into the octoling "Oof!" he turned into a squid and fell on the floor still in his squid form.

The octoling girl could hear a few voices coming to her left side. Her head reacted to her ears and turned the direction of the boy who bumped into her, letting her grey eyes gaze in said direction before she suddenly bumped into and fell onto her bum. "Hm? What was that?" She was calm and oblivious by whatever had bumped into her, mistaking Dusk for a wall.

Kara the inkling rolled her eyes and chewed on her tongue while working as a cashier where Dusk and Mirror were strolling.

He then looked at the young octoling as well, "Aw you two are so adorable!" He smiled in delight."

Kara looked at Dusk and the Octoling, then at her coworker, "...Oh $& #%$&"

"Are you on a cute little date?" He asked the two, looking at the girl and back at Dusk

Dusk turned orange as the equivalent of his cheeks becoming rosy. "U-Um"

The young girl rubbed the back of her head before seeing what exactly bumped into her. "Oh my goodness!" she yelped. "I'm so sorry. My eyesight gets the better of me..." She turned her head away slightly, flustered.

the clerk smiles and walks off, daydreaming.

Dusk got up and helped her get up. Mirror just watched crossing his arms in nonchalantly

She was a bit wobbly when getting back up, but she managed to do the task none the less. "Th-thanks, stranger." She chuckled softly. "Say...what's your name? Mine's Lola!" The innocent octoling then gave a soft cheeky smile

"I'm...um...Dawn!" he stuttered, "My name is dawn...Sorry, I bumped into you" 'Dawn' had a smiled that could light up the world if it wanted.

"It's nice to meet you, Dawn." Lola's cheerful nature began to outweigh the worry that manifested her just moments ago. "That's ok. I wasn't able to see you all that well...so I'm partially to blame as well." She laughed a bit,

"hehe...Oh! Have you heard about the agents?" 'Dawn' asked. Mirror's head pivoted to see a middle-aged man trip and crash on the ground next to the brewery. His laughter leaked out, but he unwittingly loosened his hoody, his only protection was gone, his disguise was blown.

"I have...but not much has been- OH MY-!" Lola reeled back a bit and stumbled backward when she saw Mirror's hood fly off. "Dawn, behind you!" She pointed at the greyscale figure, at least to her, that was Mirror. She wasn't scared, she was just surprised that one of the Agents was out in the open, even after all of the claims against them.

Kara saw Mirror out in the open her now failed expression became vivid, "Oh $& #%$& !" Kara looked under the counter to see the red security button, but she didn't press it, letting the situation play by itself. The other clerk was too busy helping up the now fallen customer.

'Dawn' chewed on his fingernails as his head flailed out from Mirror to Lola in manic speed then sighed "Could I show you something?" mirror quickly flipped up his hood realizing his mistake.

"U-um...y-yes?" Lola got back up on her feet, glancing at 'Dawn'

Dusk grabbed her hand and walked to a place the nobody could see and Dusk took of his disguise "I'm Agent 4 and that's Agent 5"

"Wait, wait, wait. If you two are agents 4 and 5...then what are you both doing out in the open? Shouldn't you be turning yourselves in or...?" Poor Lola has darted her eyes in confusion.

"We were framed!" Dusk shouted into a whisper, "we didn't do anything wrong-"

Mirror's steps could be heard behind Dusk, " Well I have a little -"

"But that is just normal mirror stuff. W-We isn't bad people.." Dusk said, his eyes were glassy.

"Framed? Hm...If what you're saying is true, then my only thought is...why?" Lola was now thinking of a reason for them to be framed.

Dusk would sigh And hugged Lola before she could finish her thought "Thank you!"

Mirror rolled faded eyes towards the childish inkling "Lets head back..." mirror demanded

Lola froze for a moment after the hug but gently seemed to hug back. "Not a problem, but...how will the rest of the public react to this after finding out about most of this?" She then asked.

"They aren't gonna find out. Keep it a secret... p-please." Dusk asked. Mirror then put on his disguise and super jumped away to Hq.

"You want to come with?" Dusk asked.

Lola was a bit sorrowful by his answer but nodded regardless. "If it'll help the agency get better, then I'm willing to help... but I'm going to spread awareness!" She replied, continuing her shopping,

"Okay, good luck Lola!" Dusk flew off.

"T-thanks for being nice to me!" She looked off into the distance then peered back at the now gradually fading of Dusk, She scanned her shoes perpetual in thought, then she formed into her octo form and sprung into her super-jump, following them.


	3. Chapter III

Skylar and Kris's super jumped expired, as they both landed back to back. they hid their weapons to hide. While in a heated valley of scattered tentacle statues, Skylar clutched his hoodie as cover for his identity followed right by Kris. His eyes shifted, hoping to start a conversation, opening and closing his lips every few seconds. His eyebrows were collecting sweat during that time.

"Hmm... nothing really suspicious here..." Kris muttered. The wind blew subtly against the think skin of the young octopods.

Skylar replied "y-yeah... Let's just hope no one sees us" his voice was cracking.

As Skylar and Kris trekked their way through the valley, a small octostamp was wandering off in his native home in the Octo Valley. As strange as it was, it had a name: Grog the Octostamp. Grog was a special kind of Octostamp, unlike the rest, he was the one affected by Calamari Inkantation. To add to that oddness, he also had arms and unique legs. Due to such a whimsical song played by the Squid Sisters, he was betraying complex thoughts away from his leader Octavio. Once he sees the octolings, He froze up due to fear of the unknown. If the octolings knew he was affected, he might get turned in. Fighting and running were options, but he needed to make sure of a decision quickly.

Skylar wiped the sweat off his forehead, but with a split second of noticing the Octostamp, he screeched and jumped right into Kris's arms. Kris caught him, if not out of panic, then out of surprise.

"Hey! Bud!" Kris yelled, smiling, "It's just an... Octostamp with a body?" he attempted to help him down, but Skylar kept clinging on. Kris chuckled quietly while holding onto the skittish boy.

Grog sparked into action and runs away. He hid in an alleyway, peeking out and scanning the two.

Skylar calmed down and let go of Kris "well that's just... Cursed?" He muttered to himself for a bit finally letting go of Kris completely before gaining enough courage to run after the strange octostamp.

As Skylar ran after it, Kris rolled his eyes and shrugged approached Grog with cautious yet welcoming aura, "Hey, buddy, it's alright."

Grog shrieked a bit, curled into a ball, at least trying to, only to fall flat on his face "Please don't hurt Grog! Grog only looking!"

"I won't hurt you... I mean, does it look like I would?" Kris asked rhetorically, raising an eyebrow.

Skylar looked at Kris "I mean... Do you want an answer?" He chuckled and looked back at Grog "but yeah... We aren't going to hurt you"

Grog opens one of his eyes "G... Grog small brain... Grog do not know if you are or not."

"Well, we won't." Skylar confirmed, "Despite what the news has claimed," he added, muttering, "they all think we will hurt people."

Grog slowly stands up, shaking in his boots "G... Grog not listen to news... Most things grog see on tv relate to death... Murder... Thieves... Evil squid beak people... Famous people dying... Yea. Anyways... W-who are you people?"

"No point in lying.." Skylar thought for a moment, then sighed"we're the squid beak people"

"Oh ok." The young octostamp sighed in relief, staring in the two with awe, then shook his head in recollection, "Wait, what?" Grog blinks, horrified "Ohhhhhh Grog splatted, right?!"

"No... You aren't splatted... And we won't splat you... You have to believe us when we say, we DID NOT DO what they're saying we did," Kris confirmed, his hand gesture told him to back up, he started to sweat.

"...Ok!" Grog's tune changed like a light switch, "So people good guys... Say, who people names?"

"Skylar Toryoshi..." Skylar introduced himself then pointed to Kris "and this is Kris"

"Ok. Grog name Grog. When Grog in army people said Grog not important enough to have the last name," Grog responded.

Kris keeps his guard up as the interaction with Grog ensues.

"So... Where base? Grog want be places where grog not scared to be," he asked, frowning in curiosity.

"That's classified..." Skylar replied, "I guess we could blindfold you and bring you back to HQ?" He asked his companion, rubbing his forehead, looking up at the sky. He started searching for a blindfold.

"Sure... seems like a strong move at this current time, so why not?" Kris responded his hand wide open for Skylar as he finds the blindfold.

Grog reaches into his cranium, and takes out his optical receptors "There we go." He held onto it and wrapped it around his head.

Kris and Skylar shrugged it off, activation their headphones, "Agent 4 standing by?"

"Copy?" a sweet little voice mewed back.

"We have a witness," Kris informed, "But he can't squid jump we need transportation."

"Uhhhh, what kind of Cepholipod can't squid jump?" Agent 4 asked, "Sound like you ate Keith's giggle brownies again." he giggled and gasped for breath. "But I guess I'll humor you. You are new after all~"

"Thanks, Agent 4." Skylar rolled his eyes and activated his GPS modifier recently installed by Squidbeak.

"Hey, no problem Agent 7."

Kris sighed, "He'll be here soon...?" he leaned against Grog only for them to fall.

"Yes," Skylar replied, deadpanning. "Luck is on our side."


	4. Chapter IV

The mysterious figure's eyes dart to each very monitor's on his desk to the next. He adjusted his glasses a bit more, continuing to type down some paragraphs on a distinct document. He minimized said documents and switched to a different Monitor; they were all compressed with various surveillance cameras surveying the whole city of Inkopolis. "You can't hide for long... Agents." He smirks, a hint of sanitization tainting his voice.

A small feminine petite figure creaked open a door where the man was, it shut as her clicking heels stepped directly from behind him. "The new's outrage is going exquisitely, Sir~" Her voice was rich and plucky.

"Excellent..." He turns around to face the gorgeous figure before him, "Quite excellent..." His smirk growing to a smile filled with pointed, flawlessly shaped teeth.

"The numbers and calculations don't lie~ Many are turning against their saviors..." The woman informed, "However I am attempting to destroy them all because of my own reasons," Her lively voice echoed, "W-will my plans be fulfilled?"

"...Who says they won't?" The man asked.

"Who said they will~?" the woman countered, "This may be going into the plan, but it seems like they're trying to get people to their side. If we do nothing but let them have disciples to form, our plans will be foiled." She trotted over to the monitors and evaluated the profiles of each Agent and some others.

"...Round up knows family members of the Agents and many civilians. Put them on gunpoint until the Agent reveals themselves..."And if not... it will be a inky mess of cephalopods."

"Round, all family members?" The youthful dame rose an eyebrow and stepped back, "Yes, of course, sir~"

She pivoted and stepped back to leave the room her hips swayed back and forth elegantly.

Keith's super jump finally ended, as it did he made a dodge roll to Pearl's Mansion. Clicking on the doorbell of the gates to open up, he adjusted the suit off his collar.

Pearl sprang up by Marina. "You, have you heard all that stuff about the Squid beak Splatoon!?"

Marina was on her laptop, already looking at most of the information on the news. "I have...and it ain't looking too good." She showed Pearl the information from the news channel. They watched the small video embedded on the website, intrigued.

Hearing no response Keith rang the doorbell again, waiting onward.

Pearl read some of the information before looking back to the door "Someone's here..."

"Could that be Agent 8?" Marina asked Pearl, glancing at the door before slowly walking over to it. A moment passed before she hesitantly opened it. "H-hello?" She asked.

Keith made a nervous smirk. He was in his old rockingberg gear, "H-hey Marina."

Pearl ran over to Marina and looked at Keith, she raised an eyebrow "Hey Keith... Could you explain just what the $#_ is happening?"

"I-I'm just as confused as you are!" Keith admitted.

Pearl pulled Keith with her to Marina, "At least some sort of explanation!? How is my boi 8 a terrorist all of a sudden?"

"We just found out a couple of days ago, I guess it was just some conspiracy theory kind of thing..." Keith explained. "We're trying to find witnesses and/or disciples, to tell the truth."

"That's what I'm trying to figure out myself. I've been looking at the announcement more and more times than I can count just to see if there are oddities. I've even looked into trying to pinpoint where the transmissions for the announcement came from, but with little to no success." Marina explained, then looked over at Keith. "That's good...but it leaves you like a sitting duck for those that want to take you down, Agent 8." She replied.

"...Transmissions..." Keith uttered, "Wait..." He clicks on his badge on his chest and a small drone flies out, "Marina, use this."

"Huh?" Marina looked over at the drone and watched it fly. "How might we use this to find the source of the signal?" She questioned.

"N-not to mention the other agents! They're all sitting ducks... The media is gonna blow this out of proportion, everyone is gonna turn on each other, our producers have already asked us to do a segment about this, and to rub salt into the gaping, infected wound the Squidbeak Platoon reputation is gonna get nuked into the ground!" Pearl started to go into hyperventilation mode.

Keith pats Pearl on the back, "Breathe deep, Pearl..." he soothed, "It's an audio drone, it also lets you, pilot, where you want it to go, it has a 100-mile radius."

"Brilliant, Agent 8!" Marina went to work with trying to get the drone connected to her laptop. After about 3 minutes, it worked. "There. If we can get a general location as to where the signal transmitted from, this drone could help to narrow it down!" She stated.

Pearl did indeed breathe, after a while, she finally calmed down "alright... Alright... Sorry for freaking out, let's just get to work on finding this signal then...

Keith nodded, "Let's see if we can get out of this mess..."

"I'm going to see if we can get the general area of the transmission. Until then, since it might take a while, we need to be patient..." Marina spoke, powering the drone off to save the battery.

"I'm really hoping we can find some light in this mess..." Keith uttered, "Try to find as many people as you can," Keith demanded, "I need to find more witnesses, do you know the closest neighbor you have?"

"Pearl? Do you know of your neighbors? I...tend to lose track of people." Maria asked, starting up a way to get the general transmission.

"Never talked to em... They just complain and complain about how we're 'too loud' whenever we rehearse... Real jack $$ move" Pearl Blah-Zayed. She was nearly going into tangent mode.

"Yeah yeah yeah, do you know WHERE the neighbors are?" Keith brushed off.

"Probably next door or across the street from us. I'm honestly not sure." Marina tried to give an honest answer to his question.

Pearl raised her finger, though for a moment, then lowered it "I haven't seen them in a while... Although I also don't pay much attention to them"

"I'll find them eventually..." Keith sighed, "Thanks for everything you two.. Hehe uh, don't get cooked..." He said awkwardly.

Pearl chuckled "You were always an awkward hot mess!" She called after him.

Keith waved and played with the handle before leaving the mansion. The Heroic Agent 8 slide the door closed as he trekked through the tight neighborhood, it was peaceful. However, once he crosses an alleyway, a yelp was in the distance, then silence. Something happened, and it wasn't what anyone wanted, not at all.


	5. Chapter V

A dame in an airtight unitard trotted it in the outward into the mainstream of the city just outskirts of the metro hiding, she launched a hologram computer, typing up a certain name "Skylar... Toro?" she shakes her head deleting a few letters. "Toryoshi." the enters. She collected information with a smirk. "No wonder why he became an agent, such a sad life really... the adoptive father huh...? Yuri... W-wait... Father? Weird..." she kept looking through it, "The last appearance..." she shuts it off and hotwired her motorcycle, "Alright." drove off to Yuri's 'address.'

That young lady finally left her motorcycle once finding that address. As such she flipped a small switch to keep it upward.

Behind the shack, there was a pitch of grinding metal, and a faint electrical whirl of gears turning "gotta get this right..." Flares flew up and jolted the walls, "dammit!" an octopus cursed sighing, "I'll operate on this later." Suddenly the lights of his shack shut off.

A groan uttered in the shake's walls, "how... Wh-..."

"How interesting~ I expected a more vivid reaction." a perky voice eliminated from the outside.

Yuri looked around, searching for such a voice. "Well, first of all, I'm too tired of this $#!%, and secondly who the hell said that!?"

"I understand your frustration, but I must request that you step out of your household with your hands where I can see them" It responded.

Yuri stepped out with a grimace "if it's about the bodies... I won't tell~" only for his coy smile to lessen.

The silhouette of a feminine figure was exposed in the twilight, her unitard glistening in the shadows, "It seems like you are a person of interest and have a relation with a terrorist." A decently demonstrating skin, eyepatched, doll legged Chesire cat smiled, tentacle burnt woman was finally reviled. "You're Yuri, yes?" she asked, "If you cooperate, I'll be gentle to you~"

The tentacle braided, sooted octoling caught his drool, and soon afterthought for a good second, before bursting in laughter "A terrorist!? You mean my puffy snowflake of a 'son' is being called a terrorist!?"

She steps over to pat him down, her touches were dove-like, and graceful. Then confirmed her testing. He was, In her liking, clean. "No one is laughing but you peachy pie~" She flicks Yuri's tentacle off of his face playfully.

His nose started bleeding as he peeked at her outfit "isn't that a bit... Wait... Who the hell are you?"

"Why is my name so important to you?" She asked started to twirl a ribbon around the off-guard octoling "Just call me," the ribbon urged at speed and lassoed Yuri tightly, "V"

"So I finally know you're a crazy person~" he held on to his pocket. "Anyway... You got a vendetta or something?"

V covers her chest with her hand. "Do you want to know that answer~?"

The blood from Yuri's nose accelerate while nodding "perhaps~"

The playful dame named V clenched a smirk on her face as her tongue plays with her own pointed teeth gently. "Perhaps, maybe to the Squidbeak~ or maybe I do this for fun." She wipes the blood off his nose.

The deranged raised an eyebrow "The Squidbeak's reputation has been indefinitely plastered" He tried to restrain a chuckle "So I guess you do this for fun~"

"How do you know I'm not the one who sullied it?" V continued to butter him up, her face was completely lewd and calculated, toying with him like a meal.

Yuri sighed, "look, at this point, I don't care who $& % with the Squidbeak... They're a bunch of $$& £$ anyways, I just want to know why you're still here when I could be doing anything,"

"Oh, BELIEVE me, I'm doing my job," she continued to activate her holograms and shoots a profile. "My boss said to inspect you, he never said HOW to~ and I just love playing with my food."

"Now THAT'S" Yuri smirked and made finger guns from under the ribbon "pretty $& &$€£ kinky~~~"

V aristocratic voice chuckled madly, "Alright, one more thing." V pulls out a small rag out of her cleavage and knocks him out, "Watch your head,"

Yuri's nose started bleeding one last time before crumbling to the ground.


	6. Chapter VI

Dusk would be walking through the square in his disguise. He hid in the crowd, journeying to the store at a sluggish pace.

"Excuse me, kiddo, I just need help with directions, can you help me?" A young octoling asked. Her face completely covered head to toe with makeup.

Dusk looked at her teal tentacle locks, smiling with glee. His moral compass was simple: to help anyone in need. "Oh hello! And sure I could help you!" he responded, giddy.

"Thank you..." she hands over a piece of paper, it was written in octarian, "My GPS is gone..."

Dusk giggled with a smile painted on his face "Oh I can take you there, " He formed into a small squid and launched himself to a certain small apartment.

She follows him quietly, her octopus form was pale and teal, cold as ice. "Thank you, sweet kid," the octoling reached from her front pocket and hands him gummy candy. "Here you are! you're so cute!" she squishes his little cheeks before conceivably leaving.

Dusk giggles before eating the candy. He honestly felt good about himself, only to shortly falls asleep, getting snatched.

"$ &#... my head," Keith's voice muttered in the thick darkness.

Yuri mumbled in his unconscious state "Oppai... $& £¥"

Keith's eyes fluttered open to be greeted with the flickering lights of the metro in a small station deep inside. Dusk started to wake up soon after right next to the calculated Agent 8. As such the Sweetwater sliced octoling scanned in a panoramic form: from Yuri to Dusk to the now discovered Agent 8, sleeping soundly, "UH?!"

Yuri abruptly woke up from the exclamation, "wh-..."

"Who are you?!" Keith shouted. He scrambled away.

Dusk jolted from the screaming and shutter over to Keith "8!" Dusk cried. He shivered and nuzzled against Keith.

"4?!" he exclaimed in stunned disbelief, trying to reassure him.

"Hello?" Yuri kept a monotone.

"It's okay 4, you're... uh..." he thought for a moment, hoping to say the right thing, then it clicked, "You're not alone."

"Hmhmhm..." V's voice was now audible, "My favorite snack," V's appearance rebuilt once again. She scanned Yuri, her attire adopted a hoodie covering her face.

"Should... Should I be scared?" Yuri asked, backing up.

"Perhaps~?" she replied.

Dusk was trying to ease up he gulped and sobbed, "Please don't do this lady..." he cried.

V sighed, "They all panic at first." She plucked Yuri off the ground, "Don't worry, Agent 4~ I'm soft around kiddies like you!" She confirmed dragging Yuri away.

Keith sighed scanning back to Dusk, "Dusk you alright?"

"I'm okay," Dusk confirmed, darting his eyes, "M-Maybe they're nice.

"Ehehe... yeah... nice..." Keith chuckled nervously. As his thoughts raced, he looked over at the resting at Agent 3, his cheek becoming a tad pink. "Looks like they let her rest. Keith scrambles closer to her, seeing a bit of ink on her neck. "Well, # $%. That's why she's knocked out," Keith added, backing away as his eyes widened.

"...Are we..." Dusk looked at V.

"...No... I can't deal with this again." Keith's tentacle flew straight down, his body tense and shaking.

Dusk tried to break free frantically.  
-

"Tell me about your snowflake of a son," V takes a feather knife out of her chest and grazes it against Yuri's throat.

Despite the aggressive greeting from V, he was stoic and collected, "Well... He's way too damn soft," he replied," And I think he's gay, so there's that."

Alice's fingers dance around the blade and prick her own finger.

Yuri flew silent "What do you want,"

"Do you want to join me or not?" V asked, letting the blade open up a wound on Yuri.

"Join you?" Yuri asked, "W-Join what?"

"We're part of an organization against Squidbeak Platoon," V replied, "That's all I'm going to give you."

"Does it mean beating the $#!t out of my 'son'?" Yuri fidgets, his breath unsteady.

"Agent 8 is my brother~ I'm on a mission to kill him, I think beating the shit out of your son will be a good yes~"

Yuri chuckled "then it's a deal~"

V whispered in his sensitive ear, "I like you~ I think we're gonna have a good time &# $&% the Squidbeak over," she breathed, as her teeth grazed his ear.

Yuri winked, "No sensor on this one, I love it~" He whispered back

Keith eventual falls over after a good struggling minute, "Why is... that's... that's my sister..."

"What!?" Dusk glared at Keith, "but—"

"Why is she working with a sanitized octoling?" He pressed his face against his knees, "N-no."

"We have to get out before we get sanitized too!" Dusk started to hyperventilate, scrambling a bit more, as he fell over, he noticed his tentacle flopping over his face. He then collected breaths of air abruptly"I have the best plan," he told Keith, bouncing up and down on his knees.

Keith was clearly listening, but his face was pale and his eyes drained of vivid color.

She continued to interrogate Yuri, playing with him like a doll, only to see the Agent's missing. "OH~!" she scrambled to a holster on her side and pulled out a ray gun.

Yuri blushed before looking back at V. "Something... Wrong?"

She shoots Yuri's bonds frantically and lets him go, "THEY'RE GETTING AWAY!"

Dusk just kept trying to run away. He then tripped and fell over, screaming and gasping.

Yuri got up and reached into his pocket pulling out a tiny stick that extended out into a staff "let's get em then!"

V huffed and pins Dusk, Keith finally looks up and shoots V's arm. She screams and lets him go. "THAT BASTARD BABY BROTHER!"

Dusk then looked at Agent 3. He then ran to her trying to free the clearly sleeping squid-formed girl.

Yuri sprinted after Keith "Well... &# &"

V tried to shoot them, but only hears a click on her raygun, she then pulls out some dynamite and starts throwing it at them. Dusk straight up put the squid-formed Agent 3 in his hat and threw it at Keith like a Frisbee. He then got hit with dynamite "NO!" Keith watched Dusk get hit. Dusk got flung into a wall dropping to the ground. Yuri threw his staff at Keith like a javelin. Keith dodged it and tried to get to Dusk, Keith grabbed him and lets out of the Metro. they barely get out of there alive.

V huffed, "Did you get ANY of them?!"

Yuri sighed and picked up his staff before walking back to V "Sadly, no"

V made a face of annoyance then formed into indifference, "My commander's going to kill me,"

"Who exactly... Is your commander?" Yuri asked, but was given no response. "Come on..." Yuri cupped her face and made puppy eyes "Please?"

"That doesn't work on me," V smirked.

"Well, I'll make it work~"

"How~?"

Yuri booped her nose and shies away blushing. He let go of her face but kept looking at V "something wrong~?" He teased

She pouted, "You're such a tease, and that's my job~"

He smirked "I guess we can share that position~"

She stuck her tongue out and turned around.

"Something you wanna tell me~?"

"...I like a little competition~" V flirted, curling her head, she went into the intercom, "The agents have gotten away, but a family member has not, I'll interrogate him more. Maybe I'll make him scream." She turns it off.

Yuri walked closer to Alice and twirled one of her tentacles "make him scream huh~? Sounds like you're making a threat with a good time~"

The petite woman pins the delusional man to a wall, "I'm just doing my job~"  
-

Keith tried slapping the now unconscious Agent 4, "Come on man... snap out of it." To his relief Dusk slowly woke up. "Damn it, kid..." Keith sighs, "You're a brave one..." he holds his head up. Dusk formed tears in his eyes, sniffling. Keith hugs him tightly, "Let's go back. You need sleep and pancakes," He reassured, he held his tentacles out for 4 and 3 once in octoling form and super jumps back to the HQ, covered in soot.

Thoughts scattered through his brain. This was now war. A confirmation of TarTar's Return.


	7. Chapter VII

Degraded audio and video of civilians being dragged to an undisclosed location echoes through the room. The adult mollusk watches over, a vicious smile on his face, "This will bring them out."

"What is this, Commander?" V asked.

"...We're putting them on gunpoint... and sending the live feed to them... and if they don't show up, it's gonna be a bloody mess."

"Gunpoint? But we have no one but our prisoner..." V explained, perplex.

"...and our many... innocent civilians," he added.

"Oh~" V forced her usually smirk on her face. "Send me to our master."

"...No, I don't think I will." He had a grin of sly wit.

"Why so~?" V asked, "Is it because you're lazy?" she noticed his smile weakening, so she strolls over to the fearful man of surveillance, and confided into his ear, "Or is it because you've become soft?"

There was dead silence as the surveillance man's tentacles stuck out. He submitted fervently. "Go to your commander."

V thanked him before vacating, taking Yuri with him." It's time to celebrate, Bad Egg; no need to hide from your leader." The now named 'Bad Egg' sees her off his face was painted with defeat. Yuri gave a nervous smirk V sough while hiking over to the commander's center, "Do you REALLY want to know who I work with?"

"... Sorta" Yuri admitted.

"Open the gates!" V demanded. Yuri gave a nervous chuckle and inched closer to V while Bad Egg opens the gates, watching V.

"Come with me..." V muttered, "...Sir, may I continue my project?"

He nods, "Yes."

"Master~? That's... One hell of a title,"

"It is, I'm only high class," V answered.

" Why does that not surprise me?" Yuri uttered, rolling his eyes.

"What you thought I was lower~?" She asked.

"Well... You do dress as if you're a mistress in a brothel so..." Yuri breathed, noticing a face of pure resentment. "Am I wrong~?" Yuri made a shit-eating grin.

"What you want me to change that?" She inches closer to him, giving him an alluring expression.

"Mm," Yuri thought for a moment, "no~"

V cackled quietly, booting up the lights, "Awaken," she turned on a switch as something began to boot up.

"Awaken? So what, you're waking up Cthulhu?" Yuri chuckled. A robotic octoling woke up. The octoling looked at the two of them, horrified. Yuri glared at the octoling, "I stand... MASSIVELY corrected..."

"Can you respond to me?" She knelt down on one knee.

Null just was scared and backed up from them Null tried to calm down but couldn't.

Yuri raised an eyebrow "is that like... Your child or something?"

"You can sort of say that." she replied, "I need to work on the kinks, but this is my side work, I'm actually a scientist's, engineering, chemist, physicist, whatever... Perhaps that why I was in a high position of power."

"Huh... Interesting... I'd love to be good enough at engineering to make... Well... A sorta living being" Yuri thought out loud.

"I'd like to raise him into someone who will fight by my side," V added, grinning.

Null tried to speak "O...Oomi..."

V cooed in adoration.

Yuri gleamed "well that's cute."

Null was still afraid of them.

"You seem to be a demolition," V presumed. "I'd like to raise him into someone who will fight by my side," V added.

"Demo man at your service~... Also... Like a personal servant?... Or a child?"

V activated a small switch on the back of his head, "Your name is Null. I am your commander."

"Co...Mmander.." Null uttered. Yuri watched in astonishment.

"Null," she patted his head, "Relax around your commander, she's not here to hurt you." Nulls bulb squashed as she pets him.

Null nuzzled V, eventually trusting her.

"Well... He's cute- even though it's a robot. So... I'm guessing it doesn't really have a gender?"

"It has male programming, " she answered.

"How does that even work?" Yuri's eyes were bulbous.

Null peeked at Yuri "...Sca...ry..."

Yuri brought in a complexion to frighten the cute little robot, due to his, Null then started to cry.

"Wh-... Ohhhh no" Yuri's face weakened.

V hid Null's eyes, "It's okay darling."

Yuri shrugged "pfft... Snowflake"

Null cried more as he heard Yuri "Meany..."

V sulked, "Hmph... He was just created."I almost thought you were a badass," she teased.

"What makes you think I wasn't? Sorry, but this kid's gotta learn how €£¥& up the world is gonna be for him."

"Within 5 minutes of his life?" V asked bewildered.

Null continued to sob and shot electricity towards Yuri rapidly. "We all gotta learn someday-" Yuri got electrocuted and crumpled to the ground "... Ow"

V laughed at him, "Served you right!"

"Oh you son of a- cussing cuss word" Yuri groaned

"No wonder why your "snowflake" of a son became so soft~ You didn't toughen him up correctly!" she scolded as Null just kept whimpering, only for V to kisses his forehead. Null then settled down, sniffling.

"Well, how do you toughen up a seventeen-year-old properly!?" Yuri shouted.

"Hmh..." V sighed, "I guess I did something right by killing my mom."

"Killing your mom...?" Yuri slowly gets up, slowly backing away from V.

"Dimitri was a soft kid, ya know," V explained bluntly, "You gotta take something that they believe they didn't need until it's too late."

"...Love?" null asked.

"I guess Skylar didn't need his sanity then... Although it wasn't me who took it" Yuri stumbled for a bit before regaining his balance.

"Dimitri despised his mother until I murdered her," V chuckled coldly, "Sure it gave him a few months, but now he's the 'Hero of Inkopolis.' An author, an idol, and a badass."

"Speaking of Dimitri... I'm guessing he's Agent 8?" He asked.

"My younger brother calls himself Keith now AkA his middle name: Kenneth. The difference between loving the kid, and making him weak is making them avenge what they assumed they didn't need."

Null hugged V "...commander" Null then tried to walk but fell over.

V pulled him up out of dread. "Oof, Alright Null, power down." She shuts him off.

Yuri frowned at Null with concern. "let's save this conversation for later..."

V sough, "...Right," She stepped over to a telephone, "...Master..."

There was a faint mutter of laughter reverberating around a thin metal box- A telephone poll. Like maggots crawling out of a physique, sanitized ink started oozing out of the cracks. With a clang of gears and a radiant light switching on inside the telephone's 'eye's'... It spoke softly "ɎɆ₴... ₳Ⱡł₵Ɇ?"

"Alice...?" Yuri rose an eyebrow.

"..." she thought for a moment nervously, shocked that he knew her real name, then nodded, "I've decided my choice. I'm going to be an ally with Squidbeak, and I will destroy you," her voice delivered uncertainty.

There was a soft chuckle as dust came out of the phone's speaker. "ł₴ ₮Ⱨ₳₮ ₴Ø...?"

She had a crooked smirk on her face, "Indeed~ Your organization is flawed, and your insight in all of it will fall apart. I want something that will work, not your pathetic army!"

Ink trickled from the phones box "ɎØɄⱤ ₮Ɽł₵₭₴ ₩Ø₦'₮ ₩ØⱤ₭ Ø₦ ₥Ɇ ₭łĐ... ł ₱ⱤØ₥ł₴ɆĐ ɎØɄ ₳ ₱Ⱡ₳₵Ɇ ł₦ ₥Ɏ ₦Ɇ₩ ₩ØⱤⱠĐ... ł₣ ɎØɄ ĐØ₦'₮ ₩₳₦₮ ł₮... ₮ⱧɆ₦ ₴Ø ฿Ɇ ł₮." In the metro, an ominous presence can be felt.

"Kid? How silly~" she footed on the cord as a jab, "I'm am no kid."

"₩ØɄⱠĐ ɎØɄ Ɽ₳₮ⱧɆⱤ ₩₳₦₮ ₥Ɇ ₮Ø ₵₳ⱠⱠ ɎØɄ V? ØⱤ ₳Ⱡł₵Ɇ VɆⱤØ₦ł₵₳ ฿Ɇ₵₭ł₦₲?... ₥ɄⱤđɆⱤɆⱤ? ₮Ɽ₳ł₮ØⱤ ₮Ø ɎØɄⱤ Ø₩₦ ₭ł₦Đ?... ₱₴Ɏ₵ⱧØ? ØⱤ ₣₳łⱠɆĐ ₴₵łɆ₦₮ł₴₮?" it screeched. Apitch of dripping ink and a spider-like silhouette walking slowly fade away.

Yuri scanned in panic, trying to find the tone "what... Oh god..."

"Hmhmhmhmhmh... I am known as V, Alice Veronica Becking, Traitor,  
Psycho, Murderer of my own kind... but a failed scientist?" Alice implored, "You're nothing without me..."

The box gawked directly at Alice, cold pale ink started to flood. "₦Ø₮Ⱨł₦₲ ₩ł₮ⱧØɄ₮ ɎØɄ? ɎØɄ Ø₦ⱠɎ ⱧɆⱠ₱ɆĐ ₥Ɇ ₲₳ł₦ ₱Ø₩ɆⱤ... ł ₩₳₴ ₵ⱤɆ₳₮ɆĐ ฿Ɏ ₮ⱧɆ ₲ⱤɆ₳₮Ɇ₴₮ ₴₵łɆ₦₮ł₴₮₴ ł₦ ₳ⱠⱠ Ø₣ Ⱨł₴₮ØⱤɎ. ɎØɄ ₳ⱤɆ ₦Ø₮Ⱨł₦₲ ₵Ø₥₱₳ⱤɆĐ ₮Ø ⱧɄ₥₳₦ ₴₵łɆ₦₮ł₴₮₴... ɎØɄ ₳ⱤɆ ₦Ø₮Ⱨł₦₲ ₵Ø₥₱₳ⱤɆĐ ₮Ø ₥Ɇ ØⱤ ₮ⱧɆ ₴₵łɆ₦₮ł₴₮₴ ₩ⱧØ ₵ⱤɆ₳₮ɆĐ ₥Ɇ... ɎØɄ'VɆ ₥ɆⱤɆⱠɎ ₥₳ĐɆ ₳ ⱤØ฿Ø₮ ₩ⱧØ ₵₳₦ ₳₵₮ Ⱡł₭Ɇ ₳ ₵ⱧłⱠĐ" Deep in the tunnels of the metro there's the sound of marching, "ł Ⱨ₳VɆ ₳₦ ₳Ɽ₥Ɏ Ʉ₦Ⱡł₭Ɇ ₮ⱧØ₴Ɇ ₳₦Ɏ ₩₳ⱤⱠØⱤĐ Ⱨ₳₴ ɆVɆⱤ ₴ɆɆ₦... ɎØɄ ₳ⱤɆ ₳ ₴₱Ɇ₵₭" The ominous presence can be felt in the room Alice and Tartar are.

"And yet you were single-handedly destroyed by a fool of a brother," Alice degraded, "FLAWED DUMB AND TWISTED!"

Yuri inched closer to the deactivated Null "I don't like... Any of this" He kept looking around for the presence. Yuri yelped and pivoted "V- I mean... ALICE!?, I'M BEING FREAKED THE £¥€% OUT AND I CAN ADMIRE YOU FACING UP TO THIS TAR BASTARD BUT DON'T GET US KILLED!"

The phone scoffed, "₮Ⱨ₳₮ łĐłØ₮ł₵, ₴Ʉł₵łĐ₳Ⱡ Ø₵₮Ø₱Ʉ₴ Ⱨ₳Đ ₳ ĐɆ₳₮Ⱨ ₩ł₴Ⱨ. ɎØɄ ₳ⱤɆ ₳ ₣ⱤɆ₳₭ Ø₣ Ⱡł₣Ɇ ₳₦Đ ⱧɆ ł₴ ₳₦ ₳₲Ɇ₦₮ ₩ⱧØ ₵₳₦'₮ ₴₳VɆ Ⱨł₴ Ø₩₦ ⱤɆ₱Ʉ₮₳₮łØ₦"

"...You're simply an AI who's having a temper tantrum over your own failures," Alice countered. The presence gradually fades away.

"₳₦ ₳ł ₩ⱧØ ₩łⱠⱠ ⱤłĐ ₮Ⱨł₴ ₩ØⱤⱠĐ Ø₣ ł₥₱ɆⱤ₣Ɇ₵₮łØ₦₴... ₲Ø... ₲Ø ฿₳₵₭ ₮Ø ɎØɄⱤ ฿ⱤØ₮ⱧɆⱤ, ₲Ø ฿₳₵₭ ₮Ø ɎØɄⱤ ₳₲Ɇ₦₮₴... ₩Ɇ'ⱠⱠ ₴ɆɆ ₩Ⱨ₳₮ Ⱨ₳₱₱Ɇ₦₴ Ø₦₵Ɇ ɎØɄⱤ ₴ⱠØ₩ⱠɎ ฿Ɇł₦₲ ĐɄ₦₭ɆĐ ł₦₮Ø ₳ V₳₮ Ø₣ ฿ØłⱠł₦₲ ł₦₭ ₳₦Đ ₮ɄⱤ₦ɆĐ ł₦₮Ø ₥Ɏ ₱ɆⱤ₴Ø₦₳Ⱡ ₴ɆⱤV₳₦₮" The phones ink drained itself, rendering a mechanical whir of bags, then abruptly stop. By now it looked like any ancient phone-box.

"We shall see~" Alice answered back. Alice led, going back to the Bad Egg's chamber. "Enjoy your mission alone," Alice stated. She sent Null some coordinates to follow. He followed the coordinates.

Yuri kept up by Alice's side. the girl finally had steady breaths. "So far... so good, but I didn't expect it to go too well so far."

Yuri had visible confliction. "what... What the &$ & ... Just happened"

"Something I needed to do," Alice replied, "The commander gave an order that was a paradox, so I refused to follow it."

"I- I see..." Yuri suddenly Alice a minor hug "just don't put yourself in too much danger... I don't want you getting hurt, " he admitted, blushing gently.

Alice was stunned, but hugged back "Since when have you become so affectionate?" Alice asked.

"Who the £¥€& said I was being affectionate~" Yuri defended, having a grimace, "We're allies, not buddy/buddy."

"Good Answer," Alice replied, he reached over and slid her hand on a piece of his fabric, covering a bitemark on Yuri's neck.

Yuri let go of Alice "anyways..." A faint blush covered his face.

"Let's go. I have plans for the Squidbeak Platoon, " She claimed, "It's time."


	8. Chapter VIII

Keith's heart started beating uneasily as he kept a close eye of Agent 4 after both of their mental breakdowns, finally tucking Dusk to bed. "It's been 3 days. I finally got the kid to sleep peacefully," Keith complained to himself. He trudged down the stairs and face-planted on the leather couch, groaning.

Skylar parked their truck and pulled Grog's slender arm out of the truck bed, and Kris dragged him to the HQ. Skylar then activated his intercom and converted it to 'universal-mode.' "Uhh... Guys?" Kris stood by Skylar holding onto the blindfolded Octostamp awkwardly.

Muffling was heard from the living room: "Yuuuuugh"

"So, We got an octostamp? That somehow is mounted on an inkling's body," Skylar stated as Kris stared at Grog with hesitance.

"Hmmm..." Keith pondered for a moment, then snapped back to reality, getting off of the couch. "We got kidnapped by my sister."

Skylar nervously hee heed "wh-... Excuse me, WOT!?"

Keith forced a smile, peeking at Agent 3, who was still knocked out cold. The sanitization wound on her neck was present yet hardly visible.

"Also Agent 3's infected with sanitation," Keith expanded on the statement.

A dead awkward silence filled the room. The blindfolded Grog fell on his face, but such an action assembled no reactions.

Unexpectedly, Odd patterns of screeches blare on everyone's intercom. "oH $& £!" The gay boy, Kris, wailed.

Something inside Skylar started spin like gears. But merely a second "kïll hê-... oh... Oh god no."

"Agh!"

Skylar covered his ears "what!?"

Kris throws his earpiece to the ground, "Ow! What the €£%$ was that?!"

Agent 3 suddenly woke up from the loud noise. "What in the shell wa-?!" She didn't have enough time to finish her sentence as she was too busy reeling in from the sudden noise.

Lola jolted from the shouting, "Ms. Agent 3! You're awake!" Lola huddled against her. "Agh that noise!"

Tina chucked her intercom on her work desk and pulled it apart. She listens to the code as it kept blaring. Her laptop was booted up and was ready. The intercom was connected to a laptop through a cable, and the audio converted into visual patterns. "I think it's Morse but I'm not sure."

Skylar thought for a moment before keeping the earpiece in, trying to understand the assuming morse code "...Ow"

Kris put his earpiece on, "Can we have someone record this?"

"I-uh I think I got it," Tina replied, adjusted some dials on the desktop.

"M-me too!" Skylar after understanding the morse code hurled his earpiece onto the ground "my ears..." the earpiece hit Agent 3's foot. "S-sorry Aria."

"What is it then?" Aria, aka Agent 3 asked, hyper focused.

"The morse loosely decodes to 'Hello, Baby Brother,'" Tina claimed, closing up her laptop.

"Hello... Baby brother?" Skylar tilted his head in confusion.

Kris turned off his earpiece, then turned to Skylar, "what's that supposed to mean?"

Keith's eyes widen, his breaths are raw and uneven.

"Keith said he got kidnapped by his sister, so..." Skylar thought for a moment and sat down.

"K-kidnapped? When?" Aria obviously couldn't remember the whole ordeal.

"barricade thE DOORS!" Keith shouted, he slid shut the window frames with haste.

"Keith... EXPLAIN PLEASE!?"

"THE LOCKDOWN PROTOCOL NOW!" He demanded, he slapped Kris in the back in a frantic reaction.

"Agent 8...are you sure?" Again, Aria didn't remember a thing about the kidnapping.

"JUST DO IT!" Keith cried out. However, his expression gradually softened when he realized it was Aria asking. "I'm... sorry."

Skylar took a seat and covered his face in his hands: clawing himself. "... Oh, cod..."

"Hoo boy!" Kris spat, "Never thought we'd use this." Kris used a device strapped to his arm to lockdown HQ.

Aria reeled back a bit and so did Lola. Nevertheless, the agent activated the protocol and put the agency on lockdown.

Keith crumbled to the floor and huddled up, curling into a ball. "dear god..."

"That'll hold up, I hope." Kris hoped, darting his eyes across the living room.

Skylar sighed, shooting a look at Kris. "let's... Let's prepare for some more defenses... Yes?"

"...Yeah whatever..." Kris mumbled, shrugging.

"Everyone, get your weapons, we're going against an enemy beyond our control!" Keith exclaimed.

"You sure, 8?" Kris asked. Keith gave a look of panic and helplessness. Aria shook her head a few times before glancing at Keith. She could tell that he needed to calm down for certain. Walking over to the defeated octoling. Aria pats him on the back as Dave the Autobomb, Agent 3's trustworthy pal, came waddling over to the pair. Keith cooled off, around Aria. Lola just held her Aerospray MG tightly, hoping that this fight will end smoothly.

Skylar's body started to twitch subtly. "ñêêÐ §ðmê hê-... No, no not now... Ɏê§~" Skylar got up "I'll be right back..." He ran over to his room with a look of suspicion caked on his face.

Kris equipped his Agent 9 Gear and his E-Liter 4K, "I think that'll work! You hear anything, Skylar?" Kris asked, not realizing he was gone.

Keith relaxed after the kind gesture, only for metal to start crunching from the lock down protocol.

Skylar rocked back and forth, then noticed from behind, to see the metal crunching more. The lights start flickering on and off.

"We must be prepared." Aria informed coldly, ready to take anything head-on for the team, regardless of her current circumstances.

"...Shit?" Kris uttered.

Tina prepared her gear and grabbed a roller 9k she put together. "Ready."

Skylar came back to the group with a vicious smile on his face "we'll be fine... Ör wïll wê?... †hå† ¢ðµlÐ ßê åñɏ†hïñg ðµ† †hêrê!" Skylar chuckled, there was something off with his voice, but it was barely apparent.

Keith pulled out his octobrush with his octoshot on his holster.

Kris ran up to Skykar's room. Being the gay boy he is, noticed the little something off in Skylar's voice.

Something broke the windows: a heeled boot.

Skylar mumbled gibberish until finally snapping back into reality "watch out!"

"Eh?!" Kris looked to the source.

Skylar ran to Kris "ready your weapons!"

"$& $." Keith uttered, flicking his octobrush.

"Oh $& &" Tina started the roller and it splatted a little ink before it was ready. (Talk about an amateur roller move).

"Get ready!" Kris charged and aimed his E-Liter at the hole in the glass. There was a clicking pitch as Skylar took out a pair of dualies from his boots holster. Lola and Aria both seemed to hold their weapons steady. Dave, meanwhile, was waiting for an opponent to waddle to, and splat anyone that gets through.

?: Hey Yuri?  
?: They seem scared, how pathetic.  
?: Let's scare then some more~!


	9. Chapter IX

Sun darted out of the basement during the commotion. He made a panoramic scan across the main room, noticing everyone with their weapons out, glaring at a certain crack in the ceiling like jellyfish at a light.

"Stay back!" Kris insisted, noticing the crack starting to break even more.

"What is that?" Tina angled her roller to the side to see the fracture extending.

Skylar inched closer to Kris "oh god," he grasped Kris's shoulders and peered behind him. As such, Aria aims her Hero Dualies all around, trying to find where her opponents are. Finally reading the room, Sun grabs his splat bomb, ready to throw.

A wicked cackle echoed through the darkened room, a bit of toxic gas started to fill the room, sucking out the ink, stopping the agents from firing.

Kris attempted to throw his splat bomb, but nothing happened.

Skylar noticed the air sucking out everyone's ink and tightened the grip on Kris's shoulders "If we die" He made an uncertain chuckle, "I guess now is a good time to so I'm gay!"

"We knew that!" Kris shouted.

"Was it that obvious!?" Skylar exclaimed.

"Yes, it was" Tina commented, confirming.

"Well... Carp!" Skylar groaned.

"I had a funny feeling," a familiar perky voice sang in the room. A high heeled shoe was now revealed from the smoke, then retreated. Something swam out of the small hole forming into an octoling form, "You were gay."

Kris aims his E-Liter at the wicked woman, "Stay back!"

"It's actually that obvious!?... SHIT" Skylar cursed.

Aria kept her opponent on lockdown: the mysterious figure. "Who are you?" She asked, almost in a commanding voice.

"It was," Tina told Skylar, playing with the trigger. "And who are you?"

Sun, seeing no danger in his point of view, shrugged and waddled over to the kitchen.

Skylar thought for a moment, finally letting go of Kris's shoulder, stepping over with hesitancy. "... Keith's sister?"

"I didn't know I had a fan club~" Keith's Sister sang.

"What do you want, Vonnie!" Keith spat.

"Isn't it obvious, I wanted to come in." Vonnie roamed around the HQ like it was her own home. Weapons were still locked on to her as she wandered about. "Nice place you got here, albeit interior decorating isn't the Squidbeak's strong suit huh?"

Aria gave a small glare to Vonnie, and Lola was a bit curious about the octoling in the gray world around her.

Skylar aimed for Vonnie's head, then lost focus of her, and his eyes darted around the living room, sighing. "It really isn't..."

"Now that she says it, I think we should redo some things," Tina admitted, "But for now..." she kept her focus.

Kris lowers his charger.

"Kris what the fuck are you doing!?" Skylar whispered through gritted teeth to get no response. "Kris?" Skylar then noticed he is holding a splatbomb behind his back, sighing. "I'm trusting you on this..."

Sun shrugged this all off and starts making the pancake batter. He then pulled out his 'Pancake Bazooka' and shot at her once finished.

Vonnie's cheeks tore and her jaw detached, eating the pancake whole. Everyone gasped and backed up. "Ahem... anyway." she patted her stomach. "Skylar boy, a little birdie told me SOOO much about you."

Skylar kept his focus trained on Vonnie's head, waiting for a good strike. "What did you hear?" He asked, demanding fervently.

"Enough of that information to come to me~"

Yuri appeared behind Skylar and knocked him to the floor, disarming him in the process. "I'm not sorry~"

Dusk was asleep in his bamboo cap in his squid form near the event. He woke up, first peering at Vonnie, then the fierce Yuri. "h-Hey! No fighting!"

Vonnie chuckled at Yuri, "I hope you get everything out of your system, Yuri."

"Thanks, hun~" With a sudden jerk, Yuri jerked Skylar's arm into a very awkward angle, causing Skylar to shriek in distress.

"OI!" Kris was preparing to tackle Yuri.

Yuri aimed at Kris with a unique splatling "I wouldn't recommend that~"

Agent 3 just facepalmed before she felt a stinging sensation on her neck. "Are you ok, Ms. 3?" Lola asked the famous agent, only for her to quietly nod her head.

Dusk ran up to Yuri with a heated stare. "Could you stop!" he was worried about Skylar, "O-Or I'll..I..." he grew nervous.

"That's enough, Yuri, when it comes with younger ones, I got class, " Vonnie insisted,

Yuri sighed in defeat "mmmkay" He stood on top of Skylar so he couldn't get up.

He hugged Vonnie. "Thank you miss." Dusk felt like an electric blanket when he hugged her.

"Besides we have other things to attend to, like a proposition!" Vonnie let him hug her despite the discomfort.

"Proposition?..." Tina asked.

Dusk ran over to Yuri and pushes him pushed, but only a tiny bit "Alice, hurry up before I blow this kids brain out." Yuri aimed at Dusk.

Dusk kept pushing "Please don't" tears welled up in his eyes.

Tina hooked Yuri on to a chain of burst bombs "Move one inch and you'll be won't even be alive to feel sorry for yourself"

Agent 3 stood protectively in front of Dusk. "No one lays a finger on 4." She spoke, cold in her tone.

Vonnie, Aka Alice, gracefully sits on Yuri's head, "Easy boy." She smacks his ass, knowing it'll keep him in check.

"..." Kris stared at the sight of the dominant Alice sitting on the now obedient Yuri's head.

"We've come to help you with this... because TarTar is back," Alice announce.

"TarTar?!" Tina knew that meant something bad. "Wait he's back!"

Kris's ears drooped and eyes widened,. "What?! I thought Eight took care of him?"

Lola glanced at Alice. "TarTar? You mean that goopy like creature in the Deepsea Metro?" She asked.

Skylar kept attempting to get up "T-Tartar... Oh god no...ɏê§~"

"Calm down everyone!" Keith exclaimed, "Alice, you and this 'Yuri guy' tried to kill us last week. We were going to tell them that TarTar's back today anyway so we don't need you. Besides: Why should we trust someone who attempted to kill 3 of the highest-ranked agents?"

"Look, we may not be some goody-two-shoes, but we have the decency to help. I've been working with TarTar for a long time as a little servant to help him, but I also wanted to turn on him to help you all... you NEED me, for I know his plan, his motives, and where he'll attack first." She grinded her heel against Yuri's hand accidentally, "You can't really get that from anyone else, can you~?"

While A very faint blush covered Yuri's face, Everyone grew silent. They then peered their heads to see Null who just entered the HQ.

"Null, come here." Null tried to walk to her but stumbled a little, he then tripped over right where Alice can catch him. Alice caressed his little bulb with motherly care. "What's it gonna be? You're going to run around like headless chickens trying to find witnesses, or are you going to let us help you PROVE that you are all not what they say and your reputation restored."

"Should we...trust her...?" Lola was thinking hard now. She wanted to help get the reputation of the agency back, but she was unsure if Alice was the person to trust. Agent 3 just stayed silent, lost in thought.

"..." Skylar sighed, "we don't have a choice..."

Tina stared at Alice "We don't, do we" she agreed with Skylar.

"My- my sister is kind of... chaotic, but she doesn't lie..." Keith admitted, "But give us one good reason why we shouldn't kill you, Yuri." Keith demanded.

Yuri aimed his spare splattershot at Skylar. "No matter what happens. If I die I'm taking Skylar with me. Moreover, Alice isn't the only one to have had exchanges with TarTar, I have, and I have a set of skills to deactivate systems in a snap."

Keith aimed his octoshot at Yuri once more, teasing the trigger. "That's still not a good enough answer."

Alice sighed, "We're allies, Dimitri..." She patted his soldier.

Keith/Dimitri lowered it instantly, still skeptical. "Fine... Keep a close eye on the two however, if they turn on us for whatever reason, don't hesitate to shoot."

Dusk was getting irritated again due to Skylar being aimed at again, and the room started to heat up.

Aria patted Dusk's back a bit. "There, there, 4. As long as they don't pull a fast one, they should be good." She spoke. Dusk burnt her hand, and she gave a sharp inhale for a moment. Aria touching Dusk again after that.

Null backed up "The child is a force to be reckoned with.."

Keith rubbed Aria's hand, wondering if it's okay.

Tina looks at dusk calmly and hands him an orange juice. "It's ok; calm down" Dusk finally cooled off while drinking orange juice. Tina gave Dusk a small hug to see if that would help to calm him. "There we go kiddo, feel better?" He nodded.

Kris watched the interaction, crossing his arms with a stern look. He looked down at his now busted up intercom, the morse code still softly humming.


	10. Chapter X

The events of his sister's reunion, the thoughts of commander TarTar, and the hope of his heart of the Squidbeak Scrambled until his eyeshot was right to open. He was covered in teal, bitter, and clammy ink. Drippings echoed like clicking of heels pounding in his ears. He scrambled, but he couldn't move until after a moment later. He noticed his hair changed color: pale pink instead of the harsh ebony. He stepped over to a pool of water. His sweetwater was gone, and his eyes were now symmetric: green. His eye shut briefly then fluttered open. Small papers with plastered violent ink and flames hugged and licked such sheets as they scattered around him, his handwriting painted on them. They started spinning around and forming a bright light, a beautiful mature octoling: sanitized. He tilted his head to touch his face, the scent almost too personal. She opened her eyes. Green. Warm. As he embraced him with chills running by his spine, then... Splat.

His eyes parted abruptly: the sweetwater and black hair back: his crimson red back. His breaths we're raw and uneven, almost choked, as he looked down, raven tears running down his face.

He sat up, then pushed himself off, opening a window, and going into position, super jumping off

He landed on an abandoned place, now rubble, full of memories. He noticed one strand sticking out, etched the words, "Mother."

A blue-haired octoling soldier, possibly on patrol, was wandering around Octo Canyon, absentmindedly twirling her tentacles. Her OctoShot was in a small bag at her waist. She was overheard by Keith. "Agent 4 never comes round here anymore. It was fun when I splatted them."

Arianna was pacing back and forth, occasionally staring at kettles. "I remember how cuddly those Zapfish were." She shut her eyes and folded her arms. "I-I'm getting off-topic. I need to stay alert. Hopefully, Agent 4 actually DOES come. Or maybe some other random Agent."

Keith smirked at the word Agent, distracted by the soldier "...You got a crush on agent 4?" Keith asked, approaching her.

"Wh-" She whipped around, pulling her Octo Shot out of the bag and aiming it at him. She narrowed her eyes."You're not one of our troops. Who are you?" she demanded.

"S-spunky as always... nothing changed in the academy..." Keith muttered. He drew out his octoshot. It was Squidbeak Branded.

She stepped back, mumbling to herself. "Naw, can't... no, but he- nope, he would not..." She gathered what small courage she had. "Squidbeak, huh?" Her dislike of him grew every second she was near him.

"I understand your confusion." Keith grew a smirk on his face, "Don't knock it until you try it."

She facepalmed. "Male octolings are so fucking annoying..."

"I'm just focusing on a personal mission," Keith informed, raising an eyebrow, putting his octoshot away. "Octo Valley and Octo Canyon is in danger. If none of you Evacuate now, everything that you know well and love well will change." he warned.

The octoling solder scoffed, imitated Keith. "'Octo Valley and Octo Canyon is in danger' Pfft, says the Squidbeak Agent."

"I see you're no different than the rest of those stuck up soldiers," Keith teased, "I actually thought you were at least a little different, but alas. A copy/paste"

"Hey! I'm not stuck up!" she protested.

"Fine," he responded, "Prove me wrong then. Take me to your base. I need information on how long it takes before the wave of Sanitation Ink rose by and destroys your time. After I gather such information. You may arrest me in your leaderless organization."

"Wow. Drama. Coolio. I'm wasting my time. Go speak to somebody else. If you want our base it's down there." she points to a kettle in a corner.

"...stuck up." he goes into the kettle.

She facepalmed, her face crimson. "Nooot stuck up, " she sulked, then looked back at him with a cold glare.

"You coming or not?" Keith barked.

Rolling her eyes the soldier dashed over to the kettle. "Okay okay-"

Keith wandered about the kettle, then slipped under, entering the area. He first notices the lightswitches. "It's... different than the others." he flipped the switched one at a time, "I wonder what who upgraded it." He noticed the Octoling shifting back and forth, "Can you show me the navigation room?"

She pointed down a hallway, with a rude haste, a door all the way down. "The very end. We usually take... sleds, to get there quicker, but eh you wouldn't get it.

"Alright, I'll give you proof that you're in danger then," Keith calmly imforms, "You irritant bitches can't believe it until you all see it, can you~?"

"You act," She said, through gritted teeth. "Like ya wanna fight, Agent."

"I'm fighting for the greater good, and if it means helping Octavio's Army aka my enemies, then that's what I need to do," He insisted.

"The greater good. Suuuure," The girl muttered sarcastically.

Keith jolted. He heard the intercom beeping like mad. Sanitized Octolings start shooting both of them.

"What the f-" Keith hid, as the sanitized octolings kept shooting Arianna. She was dumbfounded that she was shot by her own troops, "NOPE I'M OUT-" She left the kettle somehow. The sanitized started blocking the Kettle. She shook her head and facepalmed. "Ohhhh shiiii- what the fuck am I doing?"

"You're not doing what you so claim to think you are!" Keith grabbed her and started running, shooting the two of them.

"Hey!" She attempted to shake him off.

"You're no soldier by running away and not protecting your base at its most dire." He scolded as if he was an Elite. "Warn your subordinates! I'll take them out as best I can!" he drops her.

She snorted. "Not easy when you're abused when ya do somethin' wrong." She ran off to the actual main base.

"Whatever!" he followed.

Arianna ran through all the doors she saw, shouting audibly and firm 'PEEPS, WE NEEDA FLEE-' and then running to the next door.

Keith followed her, sanitized octolings on his tail. started shooting that wasn't a regular Octoling now that they were standing up and running with him. An elite was caught off guard. "Dimitri?" the elite muttered.

"People, fucking move! Keep your weapons out!" The octolings scattered seeing the dead octolings, shooting anything that was in their path however the shots merely reflected off. Eventually, the Kettles were completely blocked out. They were trapped.

Arianna screeched, falling and scattering off. To her dismay bumping int Keith "No! This is NOT happening!"

"MAYBE IF YOU LISTENED TO ME YOU WOULDN'T BE STUCK IN THIS MESS!" Keith shouted.

"WELL, IT'S NOT MY FAULT THAT THEY ATTACKED, IS IT?!" she contradicted.

"IT MAY NOT HAVE BEEN BUT YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN SAFE IF YOU LISTENED!" Keith scolded, "Now let me save you."

She snorted. "Go ahead. Become a stupid knight for me."

"Take this," he threw some foreign ink at her, "This will neutralize these punks for good."

She caught the ink, fumbling around with it. "Ink? What difference is there between mine and this?"

Keith grabbed Arianna's gun and his own from his holster. He tried with hers, clicking and shooting with a silly tune clearly showing her it didn't work, but it worked with his. "Smartass."

"Hey!" she shouted.

He starts shooting the Ink, "Start listening to men they might be smart for once."

She loaded the ink into her ink tank, scoffing. The two of them start shooting their way out, a good portion didn't make it but some did. After all of that, he gives Arianna a cold glare, giving enough the anti sanitizer ink for everyone and a recipe to some of the elites to make more.

"Glare not needed!"

"It cost $0 to be nice for once," Keith replies, he shoots the SO, "A simple thanks would be nice."

She sarcastically laughs, "Like I would be thanking an Agent like you. Just because you saved me, doesn't make you a savior!"

He steps over, closer, towering over her, fuming. "You're an embarrassment for your own kind," Keith exclaimed, "You're a stuck up bitchy octoling who doesn't understand what 4+4 is, and if you have any shred of dignity of being worth more than jellyfish, you'd learn to respect people who want to help you."

"Why would I respect an Agent?" she muttered, "ESPECIALLY ONE WHO'S BITCHING AT ME LIKE SOME SORT OF POWER OVER ME?!"

"Wh-" Keith's gritted his, then sighing, cooling off, "Why would I, an 'Agent' go out of my way to save a soldier, when I could have made you guys die? "because we're bleeding the same ink," Keith scolded, "I was raised by the same people, And I was educated by the same teachers as you."

"And you left us for our enemies." She added, cold.

"...If I haven't lost my memory I would have come back!" he replied, "Then I realized, I would have been treated like a slave instead of being treated equally like you!"

Her smug look softened, eyebrows loosening.

"Can I at least get your name?" Keith implored quietly.

She pondered hard, poking her chin "...Arianna." she finally revealed.

The relief was created. "I'm Keith," he hands her a card, "You can do what you want with this, throw it away, keep it, take a shit on it- whatever. If you run out of Anti-sanitising ink, please don't hesitate to call." he backs off, walking off, sitting right across from the plaque he just visited.

She sighed, crossed her arms, she looked back with soft eyes, then shut them with a pout. Arianna put the small card in her bag, not even taking a look at i. It seemed like she wanted no connections with Keith: maybe.


	11. Chapter XI

?: "Agent 5? Also Known As Mirror."  
?: "No last name? No family?"  
?: "Doesn't look like it."

It was frigid and dark in the Metro. However, Agent 5 wasn't bothered by any sorts of conditions. Hot? Cold? Freezing? It didn't matter to him at all. He was gone for days, committing insubordination from the group to take out anything that was a threat. It was noble, though if it weren't for the laid back rules of Squidbeak, he would have been court-martialed. He didn't enjoy his job at all. He rarely took it seriously. Agent 5 didn't care about vacating, but someday he'll wish he would have cared enough.

There was a chuckle that echoed throughout the metro as he was picking off stray sanitized octolings. It was an echo that was spine chilling: "₥łⱤⱤØⱤⱤⱤⱤ..." The faded blue became a bright turquoise.

Mirror turned to the attention of such light, "Huh?"

A voice spoke again. "₥łⱤⱤØⱤⱤⱤ... ₵Ø₥Ɇ ₮Ø ₥Ɇ... ł Ⱨ₳VɆ ₦ɆɆĐ Ø₣ ɎØɄ... "

Mirror tried to back up, only for a spider-like outline to form just behind him. Glowing red lights circled around him, dropping, as cold grey hands plucked him up like a flower. He struggled, shooting one with his hero-shot, dropping it in the process. He rifled through his pockets and carried on, now starting to find some things to take them out. First the splat bombs, then a bit of glass carved into a knife. Eventually, to his downfall, there were enough dead hands to dismantle him. He snarled at them, gnashing along.

"ĐØ₦'₮ ฿Ɇ ₴₵₳ⱤɆĐ..."

He was dropped to is knees as one of them held him down, garbled breathing against his ear. "Commander... Eat away," the now revealed sanitized octoling demanded.

Mirror growled "LET ME GO OR ILL-"the octolings started to sanitize him slowly.

"JØł₦ ₥Ɇ... ₥łⱤⱤØⱤ... ł₮'₴ ₴Ø ฿Ɇ₳Ʉ₮ł₣ɄⱠ... ₮ⱧɆ ₦Ɇ₩ ₩ØⱤⱠĐ... ł₮ ₩łⱠⱠ ฿Ɇ ₴Ø... ฿Ɇ₳Ʉ₮ł₣ɄⱠ"

?: My plan is going quite well, TarTar. Did you really think I'd abandon you?"  
?:ł ₥₳Ɏ ฿Ɇ ₳ ⱠØ₦ɆⱠɎ ₳ł... ฿Ʉ₮ ł'₥ ₦Ø₮ ₳₦ łĐłØ₮... "  
?: told you our agreement no? I'd promised you you'd sanitize me with second in command power. Due to my deception and lowering the guard of the Squidbeak, I think I should get what I deserve, yes?  
?: ɎØɄ'ⱤɆ ₥Ɏ Ɽł₲Ⱨ₮ Ⱨ₳₦Đ... ₱ɆⱤ₴Ø₦...ɎØɄ ₩Ø₦'₮ ₲Ɇ₮ ₳₦Ɏ Ⱨł₲ⱧɆⱤ Ɽ₳₦₭ł₦₲₴... ɎØɄ'VɆ ĐØ₦Ɇ ɎØɄⱤ ₱₳Ɽ₮  
?: Bring the boy to me, I'll give them a little surprise.  
?: ₳₴ ɎØɄ ₩ł₴Ⱨ... ɎØɄ ⱠɄ₦₳₮ł₵...

Sun returned to the HQ and left a notebook with recipes in it. He then changed into casual attire and strolled into the Squidbeak Platoon to grab a snack.

Alice was completely wiped out once she went inside. She fell asleep next to Yuri and didn't even know it. She held onto him tight.

Yuri hugged Alice, dumbfounded "did... Something happen?"

"Embrace it~" Alice hushed.

"Wh-... Embrace it?" A small blush formed on Yuri's face, his hands started wandering around her torso.

Alice nodded lazily, she felt him spidering his fingers around curves.

"Hey love birds," Keith asked, "Have you guys seen Agent 5? He's been gone since the assembly back when the news came on."

Yuri jolted and forced his hands to behave, shaking his head. "Who is he?"

"Nuh-uh," Alice mumbled, "Haven't seem him."

"Make out later," Keith joked, "A breakout of Sanitized Octolings were in the Valley, and they're here now." Keith reloaded his gun activating his Intercom. "All Agents Prepare for battle immediately!" he shouted into the intercom.

"Roger," Aria replied, while hidden from the sanitized octolings in squid-like form, waiting to strike.

"How do you expect me to do that WITH A BROKEN ARM!?" Skylar shouted back.

"Keep your distance and throw bombs," Keith replied, "It's not like we got bones!" Keith noticed the wave of the dead comrades finally leaving the area of Inkopolis, "W-we're too late..." he then turned his head, seeing a familiar face. "Agent 5..." Keith noticed 5 in his sanitized form, "Hh..." he knelt down in defeat, "Full... full assault."

Mirror walked over to Keith, dragging his feet "Destroy..."

Skylar noticed Mirror's Intercom going off. "The fuck? The fuck? The fuck did I just hear?"

Mirror lunged at Keith with his handcrafted glass dagger. Keith backed up, but was saved by a young inkling, not even fully developed. "Meanie head!" she threw a rock at Mirror. "Over here!" The girl demanded, "Bring my mommy back!" Mirror got hit by the rock, turning to the girl with a cold stare. "You made her go poof! Now make her come back!" Mirror straight up charged at her grabbing her by the neck. She cried out, trying to clasp his arm to stop him. Sun ran out and notices the young girl. Her entire body was an ivory tint. He threw his dynamo directly at Mirror's head. Mirror basically used her to block the dynamo shot like a meat shield. The girl narrowly squirmed but of harm's way.

"Keith!? What's happening!?" Skylar shouted into the intercom.

"A child! she's in danger!" he shouted, covering his head.

Skylar ran out with his limp arm dangling beside him, trying to find the grim battle. "hOW!?"

Keith raised his weapon, and shot Mirror.

"MOMMY HELP MEEE!" she sobbed helplessly, hoping that will bring her out. Mirror then slammed her into the ground and then threw her at Keith "AAAGH!" Keith caught her and shot at Mirror again.

"Keith! Pass me the child!" Skylar demanded. Keith passed the child to Skylar. Skylar caught the child and started bolting to the HQ. Sanitized octolings attempted to pin down the fleeing Agent 7, but Sun followed him and smacked the corpses that grabbed him and took the little girl, hoping to find a place for safety.

Mirror dashed at Keith "DESTROY," he chanted, continuing to lash out. Alice, unphased, witnessed this and shot Mirror on the back. Mirror fell over And stopped, flopping about and trembling, shocks firing through. "YOU MONSTERS! ATTACKING CHILDREN IS UNACCEPTABLE!" her voice was half-hearted.

The kid clung onto Sun. Skylar flipped a double bird, and accompanied the two. Alice started to shoot them with controlled shocks formed into a Lazerbeam. Mirror tried to get up, but slipped on his own body, now out-cold.

Lola had no choice. She had to keep the SO away from the rest of the agency. She shot everything she could.

Aria looked down at the unconscious Mirror, slowly regenerating to 'kid' form. "What in he absolute shell...?" She wondered. Agent 3 decided it was time to aid her agents in battle. She ran up to the dead octolings and continuously shot at them with her new hero-dualies, not caring about her sanitization damage on her neck slowly growing around her.

"I'm getting sick of this." Skylar started shooting at the dead. "MIRROR YOU SON OF A CUSSING CUSS WORD!"

"..." Alice shifted her eyes nervously, "G-GO BACK TO THE HELL YOU BELONG DEMONS!" Some of them started to retreat and scatter, almost as if they were obeying Alice.

"Don't mess with us! We have the power of God AND friendliness on our side!" Lola shouted a battle cry, adding onto Alice's quote.

Sun goes back to everyone with the young tot. Keith noticed Alice's shots and how they were scattering the enemies. Mirror, however, tried to escape, but Skylar kicked Mirror's semi-conscious body, to add on, Sun chains up Mirror to a dumpster.

"...Master! Help!" Mirror shouted, struggling.

"...Your master is not here," Alice taunted, "We'll make sure of that." Alice shocked him again. Mirror passed out one last time.

After the rest of them had retreated, Agent 3 looked back at the group. "Looks like that's the rest of them," She updated.

"Th-thank cod." Lola sighed, smiling.

The small tot scattered off of Sun's arms and ran to her now decrepit home.

"I'll just..." Skylar got up and followed Sun and the tot, nodding as thanks to Sun.

"...Mommy exploded..." she muttered, "I thought she'd come back when I was in trouble, mommy promised..." Kris was a little late to arrive, hearing them and accompanying Skylar.

Skylar turned to Kris, "We have a child to take care of... I guess."

"A child?" Kris asked.

"Yeahhhh..."

"That's the one thing I can't take care of," he mumbled, turning away.

Skylar frowned "Come on man... Her parents are probably dead... We could at least try," he had a soft smile, waiting for an answer.

"...Guess I'll try," Kris reluctantly replied.

"Thank you..."

Kris approached the now orphaned inkling, "Hey there..."

Keith glared and was paralyzed, watching the two help the inkling girl up.

"M-Mr. 8? Is everything ok?" The young Octoling that was Lola asked Keith.

Keith sighed, "Perhaps."

Both Agent 3 and Lola turned their attention to Keith."Perhaps what, Agent 8?" The agent woman asked.

Keith shut down chuckling solemnly, "Hmhmhmhm... I wonder where I heard  
that story before."

Lola frowned, going into octopus form, and nuzzling Keith to comfort him, "Did something like this happen to you?" she whispered.

Keith nodded slowly, "She's lucky." Like dominos, he leaned against Aria for his well being.


	12. Chapter XII

After a few hours once everything subsided, the chained up Sanitized Agent 5 woke up. He was greeted by a slap from Alice, along with Yuri holding the bonds tight. Mirror growled and gnashed helplessly, failing to attack her. "Hmhmhmhmhm..." Alice sighed, "I wonder if I should set you free or not, It seems like you still have a subconscious." She watched him struggle like a fish caught in a line.

Yuri loosened his grip. He wasn't quite ready to look her in the eye despite the fact he was conflicted. "Alice... Explain."

"What is there to explain~?" Alice replied pluckily, "If there's still life in there, maybe I can fix it~"

Mirror, stopped struggling, then tried to slip out of his bonds.

"Not so fast~" Yuri picked up Mirror.

Alice pulled out her raygun and shot him with a controlled shock. "...The metro is a dark place Mirror," Alice warned, shooting him again. "Do you want to go back?"

Yuri dropped Mirror as he was now out cold. "Alice?" Yuri's hand reached for his gun, finally connected some dots.

"What you're suddenly hell bent on being on the 'good guys?'" Alice had her guard up.

"Not really?" he firmly grasped the gun, "Alice where are you getting at?"

"You're a complicated man and I admire that, but you're also confused. You're lost, and it reminds me of a little girl was 8 years ago," Alice scolded, "Just drop your weapon, everything will play out just fine~""

Yuri sighed and loosens his grip. "Fine." Yuri had a face of utter defeat and confusion.

Alice smirked, then called her intercom, "...Kenneth, I have an errand, and I'm taking Agent 5 with me," Alice claimed, taking the now unconscious Mirror. She trusted that Yuri didn't have the curiosity of following her.

The two finally stepped forth into the deep sea, going deeper inside to meet up with a familiar man known as "Bad Egg."

"Bad Egg," Alice announced, "I'm home." She shocked Mirror to wake him up, then corrected Mirror's posture, "It's my time to shine. We are ripe."

A voice was deathly close to Alice. "bad egg?" he asked.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Alice shouted. She kicked Yuri in the head out of instinct.

"Wh-" Yuri crumbled to the floor like a sack of bricks.

"This is for your own good!" She scolded.

"And seems we got a visitor. Plus an intruder." 'Bad Egg' analyzed the unconscious Yuri.

"..." Alice sighed, kneading her forehead. "It's time, Egg, open the gates and come with me." Alice chained Yuri and helped him up.

Yuri very slowly woke up, snapping back to realize his situation "Dammit,"

Bag Egg stood as the gates opened, "...Ah, TarTar, good to see you, old friend."

"ł₮'₴ ₦ł₵Ɇ ₮Ø ₴ɆɆ ɎØɄ... ₮ØØ..."

"Commander TarTar." Alice demanded, "We're ready..."

An eye glowed in the darkness, "₲ⱤɆ₳₮..."

"Embrace us and make us beautiful, in exchange for my rank," She put Yuri and Mirror in front of them. Alice put on an odd set of glasses, "It is time..."

"ĐɆ₱ⱠØɎł₦₲... ł₦₭..." Tubes came into the room and released a flood of Sanitized ink, the red light started to shut off.

Mirror twitched violently, then shuttered. "...Fight..."

Alice's Glasses absorbed the ink first before going to the rest, Bad Egg merely watched. Once Mirror collapsed, he left with Mirror.

There were whirring and clicking sounds as TarTar gained information "₳₱₱ⱤØӾł₥₳₮ɆⱠɎ... ₮₩Ø ₥ł₦Ʉ₮Ɇ₴ Ʉ₦₮łⱠ ɎØɄ ₳ⱠⱠ ₳ⱤɆ ₴₳₦ł₮łⱫɆĐ" The eye glowed brighter, then shut again.

Alice's eyes were noticeably black.

Yuri frowned, sighing "I can't get mad at you... Can I..."

Most of it was absorbing the glasses. "Yuri... Are you ready to escape?"

Yuri raised an eyebrow "w-?" Yuri sniffled.

Alice hid her emotions well as the sanitation continued. "...hmhmhmhmhmh..." Alice detached him from the cable.

"Alice?!"

"Take care of Null. I have business to attend to," Alice announced.

"Alice, there is no way I'm leaving you."

"I'll be fine," Alice replied. "Everything will be okay."

Yuri pecked Alice on the cheek "just... Please don't die" He ran out. Yuri looked back and smiled at Alice before walking off again, "Be safe... My love" Yuri muttered under his breath.

She stands alone while being sanitized. The eye reeled back to show a gigantic mess of wires and electronics all put together to resemble a body hanging from the ceiling "ł₮ ł₴ ĐØ₦Ɇ..."

"...Good."

"₮ⱧɆ Ø₮ⱧɆⱤ..." The body leaned towards Alice "₩ⱧɆⱤɆ ₳ⱤɆ ₮ⱧɆɎ" It's single eye glowed brighter than ever

"...He escaped." Alice admitted. "I was waiting for full sanitation, so I couldn't stop him without interfering our contract."

TarTar made a weird robotic sigh "₣ł₦Ɇ... ł ₵₳₦ Ⱨ₳₦ĐⱠɆ ₳ ₣Ɇ₩ ⱠØ₴₴Ɇ₴"

"Indeed you can." Alice replied, coyly.

"₣ɄⱤ₮ⱧɆⱤ₥ØⱤɆ," A single sanitized Octoling stumbled towards the small group. "₮₳₭Ɇ Ⱨł₥... ⱧɆ'ⱠⱠ ฿Ɇ Ø₣ ⱧɆⱠ₱" A male sanitized octoling, small in stature, knelt before Alice, not speaking a word.

Alice tilted her head, nodding mildly. "You'll do."

"₥ɆɆ₮ ₮ⱧɆ ₵ⱤɆ₳₮ØⱤ Ø₣ ₥Ɏ ₦Ɇ₩ ฿ØĐɎ," TarTar demanded "...ⱤɆ₥Ʉ₴"

Alice smiled softly, "Remus, huh? You'll be staying close to me, I'll make a man out of you."Remus whimpered, reeling back.


	13. Chapter XIII

-SIX MONTHS LATER-

-  
-

Since Alice was now Second in Command in TarTar's Army, she was gifted into her personal throne room, Remus was now treated as a servant. However training was also part of his agenda. During those six months, he followed Alice around like a lost puppy, not wanting to make his new priestess mad, he kept his mouth shut, only speaking when he was told to.

"Remus?" Remus looked over at Alice. "Give me the coordinates of the New Squidbeak Platoon," She hands over a hologram computer. Remus nodded before taking a look at the computer, he started typing in a few things and fiddling with the new technology. After a bit he showed the computer over to Alice. On the screen was a map with a red dot depicting the Squidbeak Platoons location "Ad visuals please?" He pressed a button showing camera feed "Yuri," she breathed.

Remus tilted his head before being struck with a realization. Perhaps a name of his old friend sparked something in him. "Yuri... Toryoshi?"

"Correct."

"Y-You know him? How?!" Remus' eyes got brighter. The very mention of Yuri broke his blank emotionless state.

"I'll tell you someday Remus," Alice answered, "Please... Zoom in more." A tear started to shed. He went back to being quiet before zooming the camera footage in.

She smiled softly, "Do you know him?"

Remus nodded "A friend of mine... A good one at that."

"Is that so?" More tears race down her cold dead cheeks.

"I miss him... We got stuck in the metro. And then I left him, something just... Snapped" Remus wiped his eyes, trying to hold back tears "I heard of a group exploring the metro, apparently Yuri came back looking for me... But I couldn't go back with him."

"Really...? Tears...?" She wiped her own off.

"He was my friend alright!? Then that Tar bastard got to me! I wanted to go back with him, but now? I'm this 'thing' " Remus pointed to his sanitation, then backed off, "...I'm sorry for yelling"

Alice gave a stern look. "If I didn't know Yuri I would have recorrected you!" she scolded, "So I can't punish you... not yet at least." she cooled off her temper gradually.

Remus looked away reluctantly. "Fine... I'll go back to being your obedient pet," he sassed quietly.

Alice was caught off guard by the sass. She was furious, but she calmed down. "We both know it was my choice to keep you, but it wasn't my choice on how to treat you. If it were up to me, I would let you be free, but I can't." Remus softened up from that comment. "It's been almost 7 months since I've adopted you, Remus... we both know what will happen if TarTar gets his hands on you." Alice threateningly reminded.

"So there's not much of a choice is there?" Remus sighed, now appeased, "Alright, alright,... If we're going to survive this whole thing we need to get along... Even though my flawed sanitation might mess that up. Actually I shouldn't even be talking right now..."

"He's not here, speak all you can until I 'recorrect' you."

"Okay...?, can we like, change the subject? Please?" he asked.

"If we do, I may need to recorrect you."

"...Carp, alright fine."

Alice pulls out the shock gun, "Hold your breath." she shoots.

Remus fell to the ground "Oh! ALICE YOU B-" He thought for a moment "-eautiful oppai priestess."

Alice chuckled, then snapped back to reality, "Commander! I shall deploy our troops to gather civilians. I await your orders!" Remus laid on the floor.

TarTar responded to Alice via pa system, "ĐɆ₱ⱠØɎł₦₲ ₮ⱤØØ₱₴ ₣ØⱤ ₥ØⱤɆ ₵łVłⱠł₳₦₴?... ₵₳Ʉ₴Ɇ ₴Ø₥Ɇ Ⱨ₳VØ₵ ₩ⱧłⱠɆ ɎØɄ ĐØ ₳₴ ₩ɆⱠⱠ. ₮Ⱨł₴ ł₴ ₦Ø₩ ₩₳Ɽ"

"...Wait," Alice paused.

"Ⱨ₥?"

"No, repel the troops. I'll let the Squidbeak lose their guard. They've been terrorizing Inkropolis for 6 months. They must be training on us like punch dummies. Repel all troops and regroup for an extreme assault."

"6 ₥Ø₦₮Ⱨ₴... ł'₥ ₮ⱤɄ₴₮ł₦₲ ɎØɄ ₩ł₮Ⱨ ₮Ⱨł₴" TarTar responded before disappearing into the darkness of the metro.  
"We'll attack on Squidmas Eve. Where everything's joyful." she had a crooked smile on her face, "Remus, spread the broadcast to all Troops."

Remus nodded before walking over to the computer and sending a broadcast to each and every sanitized troop. Like an army of ants they all flooded back to the metro "Let's give them one hell of a show on Squidmas!"

"...Remus, I need to recorrect your emotions." Alice replied, "I'm sorry, but come with me." Remus grew quiet and obedient before turning to his Priestess. Alice starts walking to the correction room, "I'll need to also." She started plugging in wires in Remus's skin, as well as some on her own skin then activated the machine. Remus did not respond, he merely stood there fiddling with his fingers. They both started to power down and rest soon after.


	14. Chapter XIV

After 6 months of the wipeout of Inkopolis as a whole, Keith noticed the Sanitized Octolings retreating into the Metro. There were none in the main urban area after a few weeks. Inkopolis' citizens were starting to feel safe in the streets, gradually. And stores started to open, so he super jumped to the Valley, wondering if that was also the case for Octavio's Citizens.

Arianna was sitting down, not exactly sure what to do. She was kinda bored, considering that all her allies were away doing other important things. She didn't know. She put her head in her hands and sighed.

Arianna was close to Keith's landing at that time, he searched around for any sign of life since the invasion. He didn't even notice Arianna.

"You're so ignorant." She facepalmed and stood up.

Keith noticed the sound of Arianna's voice, "Why do I have to be the 'ignorant one?'"

"Yep, ignorant is right." She chuckled.

"Uh, that wasn't an explanation," Keith countered, "Are you just acting dumb?"

She laughed, "You're always so defensive."

"And you're always so stuck up," Keith added, he sits down across from her.

"Pffft Maybe I am stuck up. Just MAYBE, though. Don't go teasing me about it." She admitted.

"Why, are you into that~?" Keith teased, his face a bit more wicked.

"Hey! I said no teasing!" She scolded.

"You said I couldn't tease you about your being stuck up, never said anything about being teased in general," he reminded.

"Oh come on! Do you always look for loopholes?" She was fervently annoyed, now munching on a piece of chocolate.

"I'm an agent, I have a right to," Keith replied with a shit-eating grin.

"You have a right to? Shouldn't I then have a right to?" She smiled, "Thanks for the idea." She continued munching her chocolate.

"No, because if you try to find loopholes your boss might punish you~" Keith countered.

"Remember when we first met? You said 'You may arrest me in your leaderless

clan?' Is your memory broken?" She sassed.

"I said Boss, not Leader," He taps his head with a taunt.

"A leader IS a boss in a way." A touch of sarcasm was made. She shrugged her shoulders slightly.

Keith sighed, "There's just no pleasing you is there?"

"Probably not," She sat down again and crossed her legs.

"Splatting Agen-" She caught herself. "Splatting people."

Keith wheezed, "It's okay, just be honest, I'm not offended. Besides the first time we met, you missed splatting 4, almost as if you had a crush on him~ You have a soft spot for innocent beans?"

"Wh- no! It's just fun! T-To splat!" A pink tinge appeared on her cheeks.

He chortles internally. "You know he's 14, right? 'S a shame." he looks away, "Perhaps someone else might like you back~"

"That's mean!" She crosses her arms and pouts.

"Why's that mean?" Keith asked, "I'm just being honest, Your spunky and confident facade might spark interests," he bluffs.

"'Honest' can be upsetting sometimes, and I 100% know that's true."

"You want me to lie?" Keith asked, "That's just rude, like you~"

"Back at Square 1, then." She huffed, losing interest. "How 'bout we get off this subject?"

Keith rolled his eyes and nodded, "Agreed."

"Well... what do you Agents usually do anyway? I mean other than 'saving the world,' or whatever the hell you call your shenanigans."

"Well one of our trainees makes pancakes and waffles," Keith thought for a moment, "We usually go shopping, and get our hair done," he curls his black tentacle, "Training's nice," he thought, then continued, "My favorite times are festivals, all the food we can eat, countless games, competitions, and tournaments... However, the best times are preforming for audiences across the world."

"Pffft I'll take your word for it..." She put her head in her hands. "Because we're Octarian Soldiers, we're not allowed any of that: no Festivals, Stores, not even games."

"...I wish I could show you," Keith muttered, "Technically I can, but I don't want you to get into trouble."

"...You could?" She rose an eyebrow now having a bit more interested.

"It won't be glamorous because of the Sanitation Outbreak," Keith muttered, "Some civilians survived- enough for the place to operate... I'm not sure if you'd be off the hook once you come back- unless some rules changed I guess..."

"Th-they wouldn't care if I left... ya know what? Fuck it, come on!" She was already on her feet, "This place better be good enough for my time."

Keith gave coordinates to Arianna before Superjumping off. Arianna was secretly excited, not prepared as a whole, but excited. She thought about changing her clothes for once but wasn't sure what they would look like. She decided for a moment while looking at the coordinates whether to go or not. 'Nah, nobody would care' She super jumped towards the designated area. He waited for her, the first place she was at was a small strip mall. Her super jump expired, and she landed on the ground, then fell. Arianna stumbled to her feet, only to get caught by Keith. "Still not used to doing that..." she groaned, brushing off of him thanklessly.

"Really?" He rose an eyebrow, "Huh... things really did change." Keith sighed, "Welp, pick one, there's Annaki Topic, FireFin's, Inkline Secret."

"No idea what the fuck those are," She deadpanned.

"Let's go to my favorite," Keith leads the way to Annaki Topic. The clerk greets them, it seemed like a semi-goth store, with some other laid back clothes as well. Arianna was very curious about her surroundings. She inspected everything she saw. He let her explore a few places. He felt nostalgic about when it was his first time picking clothes with Agent 4 and 3.

She booped a few things. "These are... weird... "These are clothes?" She didn't seem to know what they were, strangely, they were different than the stuff she wore.

"Yes?" Keith replied confused.

She booped one and it swayed slowly. Arianna recoiled. "They're weiiiird."

"You want to try something on?" Keith thought for a moment, "mmm..." he hands her a couple of things, "Clerk?" he hands him a key and led her to the changing room.

"Ummm... okay..? I'm trusting you on this, I'm gonna be after your ink if I turn out looking stupid."

"Heheh..."

She entered the changing room. He waits. After a moment she emerges from the changing room, slightly nervous. She was dressed in a grey hoodie, with a navy skirt, and black jeans. She twirled her tentacles nervously. "So..?"

Keith hid his blush well, "Huh, just like me: always looking great at the first try." Keith was looking through the makeup section.

A lot of pressure seemed to come off her shoulders. A pink tinge appeared on her face. "U-Uh... thanks..."

He bought some makeup for himself and went into the dressing room, putting some on him.

She attempted to read the signs. "Make...up?" She was thoroughly confused.

"What?" Keith sulked, "I gotta look good sometimes," Keith winked jokingly.

She thought for a half-second, then said. "Sure, Sure, but ya gotta tell me what the shell makeup is."

"Everyone looks beautiful, guys, girls, especially me~," He paused, chuckling at Arianna rolling her eyes in disgust, " Ahem: but sometimes you just need a touch-up, they're basically clothes for your face."

"Clothes for your face..? Don't think I'll try that then, I was nervous enough about choosing normal clothes." She crossed her arms, fluffing up her clothing. "So we gonna pay?"

"Yup, I'll just use Petty cash from the HQ." He pays for them.

"Where next, then..?"

"There's Crusty's which is food."

"Crusty's?" The last word caught her interest. "Food?!" She was like a rabbit, a short rabbit. She was hopping up and down on the spot.

He leads her Crusty's, "Two please and an And Orange Juice and a Raspberry Smoothie." he turned to her, chuckling, "Wanna sit, bunny rabbit?"

"Hey! I'm not a rabbit!" she protested. Her voice was higher pitched, though.

Keith sat down with two trays and a dumb smile on his face, "This is yours, try it." She put a small piece in her mouth. Her eyes lit up. He sipped on his smoothie, waiting for a reaction, only for her to be already done the moment he blinked.

"Ehehe." A small blush ran across her face when Keith gave him an incredulous look

He noticed a small bracelet on her leg, "Uh... "Isn't that a tracker?" Keith pointed at the bracelet on her leg.

"Trackers?" She looked down at her leg. "Ooh, shit, it is."

"We should get you back."

"Why..?" She was getting a bit nervous. "And what about my armor?"

"Won't they try to..." he had a face of concern. "What would they do if they find you out of bounds?"

"I-I don't kn-know!" She was positively scared at this point. "I NEVER WENT OUTSIDE OF BOUNDS!"

"I- I'm uh!" He finished up. "What do you want to do!"

"I don't know! Head back to the Valley? Or is it too late?" She was really frightened and frustrated.

He noticed two Elites in the distance, "F-far too late. Go into 'octopus' form. N-now," he stood up.

She hugs Keith. "I-I hate to admit it, but I'm scared!" She did so and hid behind Keith's feet.

He picked Arianna up and bolted, to the garage of the HQ. "...You don't have to stay here in the HQ, but you have a choice to stay in Inkopolis, my tools can tear off the tracker. It's your choice."

She shivered, darting her eyes. "I'd rather stay here than be torn apart by them..."

"...I understand," he starts unscrewing the tracker, and it was released. "I'm going to wear it, and run as far away as possible," He rushed to a corner of the garage, took a plush of a squid, and held it to his chest. "I'll come back once the coast is clear. Promise me you'll stay here in the garage until then?"

"O-Okay..." she mumbled. Knowing Arianna was reassured by his words, and trusting she'd stay in the garage, Keith placed the tracker bracelet around his arm. It was loose enough to get off and bolted. He shut the garage, refusing to look back to Arianna. She curled up in the corner, hugging her knees.

"Dad!" a little girl called out towards Kris, "I'm going to get some emergency sandwiches from the garage!" She opened it up from the indoor hatch. Arianna noticed the garage door opening, curling up tighter. "Octoling...?" the squid tilted her head. "Are you okay ma'am?" the tot inched closer, having no intention of frightening the soldier. "Do you want to step inside ma'am?" Arianna now noticed it was just a small inkling, 10 years old, not even fully developed. Despite this Arianna shuffled still further into the corner, scared of this unknown squid.

"K-Keith... h-he..."

"You're Keith's friend?" She asked.

"H-He...He ran with my tracker! W-with elite octolings following him! IT'S MY FAULT? I SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SO-" she yelled, "I shouldn't have been a bitch to him... he saved me and..." Her voice quivered.

"Ihavenoideawhatyoujustsaid, but he's a strong agent. If he does end up caught, he'll find a way out. You don't need to worry!" the child reassured, "O-Oh! My name's Celia!"

Arianna peeked her head so she could see her. She hesitated, but gave Celia her hand, "A-A-Arianna..."

"Do you want to come inside?" Celia asked, "We won't pressure you into any agent stuff, You're officially a guest here!"

"B-But I'm an Octarian S-Soldier," she stuttered.

Celia rolled her eyes, "We have allies who are bounty hunters, retired criminals, and an Octostamp, being an Octarian Soldier is nothing, do you still want to be one?"

Arianna was kinda shocked. "I'm on the fence, I'm loyal to Octavio, but," She rubbed her arm, mumbling, "I guess Keith had a point."

"Fair enough~ come on, It's up to you, but it gets cold in the Garage," Celia informed.

Arianna smiled softly.


	15. Chapter XV

Alice's subconscious was fading into the hivemind. It's been a few days since she had recorrected herself. Throughout the fragments of her splintered mind, she thought of a way to get herself out her ever-nearing fate, but she knew damn well whatever plan she had, she was backed into a corner. Alice had little choice; it has been decided. "Commander TarTar?"

In the gloom of the metro, a faint blue light appeared. It grew brighter and brighter until it covered the room in its blue light "ɎɆ₴, ₥₴. ฿Ɇ₵₭ł₦₲?"

Alice shuddered, then exhaled. "Remember Applicant 10008?" Alice asked.

The light reeled back to expose TarTar's robotic form. "ⱧØ₩ ₵ØɄⱠĐ ł ₦Ø₮?!" he spat.

"...So it seems... my brother was the one who destroyed you, hmmm?" Alice's lips grew a vicious grin. "I have a plan."

"₲Ø Ø₦...?"

"REMUS!" She called out forcefully, "COORDINATES TO THE HQ OF SQUIDBEAK VISUALS OF DIMITRI KENNETH BECKING!" Remus jolted, squeaking before pulling his laptop out of a satchel wrapped around his waist. After some rushed texts and demands from his laptop, he gained both coordinates and visuals of the coordinates, but no Agent 8. He gave the visuals to his masters. Remus's hands were jittering from his fear of TarTar. To her disappointment, she rolled her eyes, but she knew where he was nonetheless. "Zoom in to his bed," she noticed small notebook papers. Remus did as Alice asked, zooming into the notebooks until they were clearly visible. "Hmhmhm what's this now?" Alice asked herself, her eyes bulbous. "Snap, small pictures of those and decode them. Keith should be here any moment captive." Remus took multiple pictures of the papers before hurrying off to read and decode them.

A half an hour later, two captives returned. To Alice's glee, his brother was before her at her mercy. Alice stepped out of her throne room, "Here we are~ hello Baby Brother~" Keith struggled on his bounds. TarTar retreated into the darkness of the metro, only leaving small trails of sanitized ink. "Remus, take the boy and follow me." Remus grabbed Keith by his bindings and dragged him, following Alice as well. In the deepest part of the metro, she tied him up against two poles of the recorrection room. "That tracker of Arianna's was really something~ you can thank my little servants for hacking it so I could finally catch you~"

"Why do you want me?!" Keith shouted.

"Easy~ I've failed my mission almost two years ago to kill you, I'll succeed this time!" Alice promised.

"And how are you going to do the- ow!" Alice steals Keith's intercom forcefully.

"Simple~ Give you a reminder that you'll die alone," Alice responded wickedly.

"What you think I like that Octoling Soldier? We're friends and only friends!" Keith barked.

"Oh, believe me, I know you're not lying to me, but I discovered that you're into... someone else." the moment Remus was finished with her previous command, Alice gestured the hologram of the decoded poem.

"...Don't you dare..." Keith snarled, struggling fervently.

She turned on his intercom and placed it around her head.

Aria was in the kitchen, getting herself something to eat. She noticed that this place was quiet: too quiet. The intercom was giving a signal to Aria. It was garbled nonsense from Keith's intercom. Remus stood by Keith and Alice, rubbing his arm and his eyes shifting all over the room, something inside told him this wasn't a good thing to do, but he had no choice.

She looked down at her Intercom. "This is Agent 3, come in." She spoke into it.

"Is this Agent 3?" Alice asked, "This is Alice, I happen to have Agent 8 on the line." Tina peered over, in tune with Aria's conversation.

"It's been 6 months honey~" A hint of sanitization accent was in her voice, "I think Keith has been "DYING" to tell you something."

"Who knows~" Alice fibbed, "Is that Tiiiina? HI TINNAAAAAA!"

That quotation of 'dying' alarmed her senses. "What's his condition?!" The worried agent demanded to know.

"Oh he's fine, he's fiiine for now that is~" Alice sang, "Though he is in a bit of a 'tight' situation right now."

Remus facepalmed, a bit of sass marked his tone. "Oh come on! You could have done better than that!"

"Give us your location and we'll be on our way," Tina demanded.

"Of course~" Alice sent coordinates: bait.

"NO DON'T!" Keith's voice was distant, yet raw.

Remus's sanitation abruptly overcame his other thoughts and feelings about this situation. "Stop before I make you stop," Remus shushed Keith. Alice pulled out some mind control sanitation ink to put on Keith, but the ink looked foreign and unusual. Remus pointed an octo shot towards Keith's head while she toyed around with an eyepatch. Alice scooped the unearthly ink behind an eyepatch so no one could tell he was controlled.

Aria looked over the coordinates. "Grab your weapon, Tina. Let's go." Agent 3 shut off the intercom, grabbed her Hero Dualies and Dave of all things, and left according to the coordinates.

"The coordinates are (47.5°N, 153°E) hmm... That's the deepest part of the metro!" Tina discovered.

"What the shell are we waiting for?!" Aria shouted.

As they reached such location, Keith was seemingly unconscious as Alice was in the shade, and Remus was in the light as he glared at Aria and Tina with sanitized ink pouring from his eyes as if they were tears.

"Oh, my Oh my~ what a lovely reunion~" She replied. As she was revealed, she was Sanitized.

When she and Dave got there, immediately the agent noticed that her comrade was knocked out. Then, she eyed Remus and Alice coldly. "What the shell happened here?" She looked like she was about to draw her Dualies. Dave was very much cautious.

"It's been too long... too long." Alice snapped her fingers as now both Tina and Aria were pinned down: two servants per agent.

"Oh come on!" Tina snapped.

Remus kept his octo shot pointed at Keith's head. His eyes rapidly shifted among the group. He desperately yearned to disobey any commands from Alice: for now. Aria tried to squirm her way out of their grasp, going so far as to go into squid form, knowing that she'd be smaller but to no avail.

Dave looked at the SO with his blank stare. Though inside, he was irate.

"Commander TarTar! Give a hand for two of the Defenders of Inkopolis!" Alice clapped insincerely. "And our special guest with us! APPLICANT 10008! THE HEROIC AGENT 8!"

"You piece of infected sushi, TarTar!" Aria cursed.

She struggles to reach her bomb stash and successfully chucks an auto bomb out to reach Alice. Dave, an Autobomb himself, looked at his little friend go, only to watch in horror as Alice stomps on the first one quickly.

"It's the most wonderful time of the year: Squidmas Eve everyone~ I've been working on something special! Baby Brother has always been sooooo emotional, but I never thought he'd fall for someone like you~" Alice taunted.

"For... someone like me?" Aria raised an eyebrow, expression warm.

"H-huh?" Tina stuttered.

Tartar's body hung from the ceiling as he looked at everyone in his vicinity, he kept quiet waiting for events to unfold.

"Yes... I guess he has a boner over someone strong and independent," Alice added, "Strange how I thought he was into that Octoling soldier, He saved her life after all, but I guess it was just a mere platonic relationship," Alice pondered, "I also wondered if he'd ever come back to that Elite Soldier he banged before he lost his memory~ But no! plot twist! we just found out his little poems were about you, Agent 3!"

"What are saying?" Tina asked.

"I'm saying that I'm surprised he didn't say SOMETHING before he died 5 minutes ago~" she revealed.

"DIED! 5 minutes ago! What...?!" Tina shrieked.

"He's...dead...?" Aria's eyes widened with shock.

"Remus... It's time to put on a show..." Alice demanded, "WAKE HIM UP!" Remus shot Keith's kneecap, so Keith immediately woke up and started shooting the two of them.

"That's it you sick bastards. No time for crying now. It's time to kick your ass!" She broke free from the Sanitized Octolings and started to ink, neutralizing the guards. TarTar watched In glee seeing Agent 8 attack his comrades. With a low deep chuckle, he disappeared back into the depths of the metro. "What?! COME BACK!" Tina started to dodge the shots until she got hit by one. Aria, not wanting to shoot at Keith, thinking of how she was once mind-controlled, tried to go for a different tactic. Dave followed. "I distract him you do what you need to do Aria." She chucked an autobomb, a friend for Dave, and bolted off, hoping Keith will follow her. Tina glanced at Keith with rage. "I see how it is. I'm sorry, but..." she pulled out her gun and shot Keith in the foot. Aria ran off and kept focus, making sure TarTar wasn't near the range of battle. Keith stumbled due to the impact of the ink shot, but that shot only pissed him off more. He threw his octoshot on the floor and pulled out some Duallie Squelchers.

Remus watched the fight, inching closer to Alice. Alice watched as well but with a blank expression. "Remus," Alice called. Remus responded with curiosity. "TarTar knows nothing about what my goal is to do. I'm going to let you free for now," Alice informed.

Remus tilted his head "let me... Go?" Remus remained quiet. He was conflicted: frozen.

"How do I know if he's back or not." Tina spots a splotch of ink. "Got it." She goes towards a wall and jumps hoping that he would hit the wall. Keith hit against the wall and fell unconscious. Due to this, his form retreated to 'octopus' form. "Perfect." Tina injected some low tide ink to shut him down. The ink detached from Keith, but there was no response. She hid him in a small compartment. "Now then, time to take care of Alice."

"Why aren't you leaving?" Alice asked Remus, incredulous.

"You're my Priestess: my commander. We stick together no matter what happens, right?" Remus asked.

Alice gasped, caught off guard, but her reaction softened with comfort. "If that's the case, Tina's going to be our hero."

Remus made a small grin "...Thanks"

"...Tina...? It was no lie. Agent 8 is truly gone. I finally finished what I wanted two years ago." Alice taunted.

"But why, you sick fuck, why?!" Tina spat.

"I'm Alice Veronica Becking, that's why." Alice pridefully answered.

With her lungs raw, and her body painted with sweat, she took out her gun from her holster. The hero-shot was focused on Alice's head. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you right now."

"...Because there's one thing I haven't lied about... TarTar must be stopped." Alice reminded coldly.

Tina lowered her gun, a tad lost. "Which side are you on," she inquired, "What are you playing at?!"

"Do me a favor, Tina..." Alice asked.

"What is that?" Tina groaned.

"Shoot here." Alice pointed to her glasses. Aria was watching from a distance, making sure TarTar didn't come back. As such, Tina was tempted to shoot somewhere else. "If I kill you, Fine. If you're really against TarTar, good. Either way, I'm willing to die." Remus wheeled around and aimed at Tina. Due to Remus's threat, Tina relented, now defeated. Wincing, she shot Alice's glasses dead on.


	16. Chapter XVI

Alice's subconscious was fading into the hivemind. It's been a few days since she had recorrected herself. Throughout the fragments of her splintered mind, she thought of a way to get herself out her ever-nearing fate, but she knew damn well whatever plan she had, she was backed into a corner. Alice had little choice; it has been decided. "Commander TarTar?"

In the gloom of the metro, a faint blue light appeared. It grew brighter and brighter until it covered the room in its blue light "ɎɆ₴, ₥₴. ฿Ɇ₵₭ł₦₲?"

Alice shuddered, then exhaled. "Remember Applicant 10008?" Alice asked.

The light reeled back to expose TarTar's robotic form. "ⱧØ₩ ₵ØɄⱠĐ ł ₦Ø₮?!" he spat.

"...So it seems... my brother was the one who destroyed you, hmmm?" Alice's lips grew a vicious grin. "I have a plan."

"₲Ø Ø₦...?"

"REMUS!" She called out forcefully, "COORDINATES TO THE HQ OF SQUIDBEAK VISUALS OF DIMITRI KENNETH BECKING!" Remus jolted, squeaking before pulling his laptop out of a satchel wrapped around his waist. After some rushed texts and demands from his laptop, he gained both coordinates and visuals of the coordinates, but no Agent 8. He gave the visuals to his masters. Remus's hands were jittering from his fear of TarTar. To her disappointment, she rolled her eyes, but she knew where he was nonetheless. "Zoom in to his bed," she noticed small notebook papers. Remus did as Alice asked, zooming into the notebooks until they were clearly visible. "Hmhmhm what's this now?" Alice asked herself, her eyes bulbous. "Snap, small pictures of those and decode them. Keith should be here any moment captive." Remus took multiple pictures of the papers before hurrying off to read and decode them.

A half an hour later, two captives returned. To Alice's glee, her brother was before her at her mercy. Alice stepped out of her throne room, "Here we are~ hello Baby Brother~" Keith struggled on his bounds. TarTar retreated into the darkness of the metro, only leaving small trails of sanitized ink. "Remus, take the boy and follow me." Remus grabbed Keith by his bindings and dragged him, following Alice as well. In the deepest part of the metro, she tied him up against two poles of the recorrection room. "That tracker of Arianna's was really something~ you can thank my little servants for hacking it so I could finally catch you~"

"Why do you want me?!" Keith shouted.

"Easy~ I've failed my mission almost two years ago to kill you, I'll succeed this time!" Alice promised.

"And how are you going to do the- ow!" Alice steals Keith's intercom forcefully.

"Simple~ Give you a reminder that you'll die alone," Alice responded wickedly.

"What you think I like that Octoling Soldier? We're friends and only friends!" Keith barked.

"Oh, believe me, I know you're not lying to me, but I discovered that you're into... someone else." the moment Remus was finished with her previous command, Alice gestured the hologram of the decoded poem.

"...Don't you dare..." Keith snarled, struggling fervently.

She turned on his intercom and placed it around her head.

Aria was in the kitchen, getting herself something to eat. She noticed that this place was quiet: too quiet. The intercom was giving a signal to Aria. It was garbled nonsense from Keith's intercom. Remus stood by Keith and Alice, rubbing his arm and his eyes shifting all over the room, something inside told him this wasn't a good thing to do, but he had no choice.

She looked down at her Intercom. "This is Agent 3, come in." She spoke into it.

"Is this Agent 3?" Alice asked, "This is Alice, I happen to have Agent 8 on the line." Tina peered over, in tune with Aria's conversation.

"It's been 6 months honey~" A hint of sanitization accent was in her voice, "I think Keith has been "DYING" to tell you something."

"Who knows~" Alice fibbed, "Is that Tiiiina? HI TINNAAAAAA!"

That quotation of 'dying' alarmed her senses. "What's his condition?!" The worried agent demanded to know.

"Oh he's fine, he's fiiine for now that is~" Alice sang, "Though he is in a bit of a 'tight' situation right now."

Remus facepalmed, a bit of sass marked his tone. "Oh come on! You could have done better than that!"

"Give us your location and we'll be on our way," Tina demanded.

"Of course~" Alice sent coordinates: bait.

"NO DON'T!" Keith's voice was distant, yet raw.

Remus's sanitation abruptly overcame his other thoughts and feelings about this situation. "Stop before I make you stop," Remus shushed Keith. Alice pulled out some mind control sanitation ink to put on Keith, but the ink looked foreign and unusual. Remus pointed an octo shot towards Keith's head while she toyed around with an eyepatch. Alice scooped the unearthly ink behind an eyepatch so no one could tell he was controlled.

Aria looked over the coordinates. "Grab your weapon, Tina. Let's go." Agent 3 shut off the intercom, grabbed her Hero Dualies and Dave of all things, and left according to the coordinates.

"The coordinates are (47.5°N, 153°E) hmm... That's the deepest part of the metro!" Tina discovered.

"What the shell are we waiting for?!" Aria shouted.

As they reached such location, Keith was seemingly unconscious as Alice was in the shade, and Remus was in the light as he glared at Aria and Tina with sanitized ink pouring from his eyes as if they were tears.

"Oh, my Oh my~ what a lovely reunion~" She replied. As she was revealed, she was Sanitized.

When she and Dave got there, immediately the agent noticed that her comrade was knocked out. Then, she eyed Remus and Alice coldly. "What the shell happened here?" She looked like she was about to draw her Dualies. Dave was very much cautious.

"It's been too long... too long." Alice snapped her fingers as now both Tina and Aria were pinned down: two servants per agent.

"Oh come on!" Tina snapped.

Remus kept his octo shot pointed at Keith's head. His eyes rapidly shifted among the group. He desperately yearned to disobey any commands from Alice: for now. Aria tried to squirm her way out of their grasp, going so far as to go into squid form, knowing that she'd be smaller but to no avail.

Dave looked at the SO with his blank stare. Though inside, he was irate.

"Commander TarTar! Give a hand for two of the Defenders of Inkopolis!" Alice clapped insincerely. "And our special guest with us! APPLICANT 10008! THE HEROIC AGENT 8!"

"You piece of infected sushi, TarTar!" Aria cursed.

She struggles to reach her bomb stash and successfully chucks an auto bomb out to reach Alice. Dave, an Autobomb himself, looked at his little friend go, only to watch in horror as Alice stomps on the first one quickly.

"It's the most wonderful time of the year: Squidmas Eve everyone~ I've been working on something special! Baby Brother has always been sooooo emotional, but I never thought he'd fall for someone like you~" Alice taunted.

"For... someone like me?" Aria raised an eyebrow, expression warm.

"H-huh?" Tina stuttered.

Tartar's body hung from the ceiling as he looked at everyone in his vicinity, he kept quiet waiting for events to unfold.

"Yes... I guess he has a boner over someone strong and independent," Alice added, "Strange how I thought he was into that Octoling soldier, He saved her life after all, but I guess it was just a mere platonic relationship," Alice pondered, "I also wondered if he'd ever come back to that Elite Soldier he banged before he lost his memory~ But no! plot twist! we just found out his little poems were about you, Agent 3!"

"What are saying?" Tina asked.

"I'm saying that I'm surprised he didn't say SOMETHING before he died 5 minutes ago~" she revealed.

"DIED! 5 minutes ago! What...?!" Tina shrieked.

"He's...dead...?" Aria's eyes widened with shock.

"Remus... It's time to put on a show..." Alice demanded, "WAKE HIM UP!" Remus shot Keith's kneecap, so Keith immediately woke up and started shooting the two of them.

"That's it you sick bastards. No time for crying now. It's time to kick your ass!" She broke free from the Sanitized Octolings and started to ink, neutralizing the guards. TarTar watched In glee seeing Agent 8 attack his comrades. With a low deep chuckle, he disappeared back into the depths of the metro. "What?! COME BACK!" Tina started to dodge the shots until she got hit by one. Aria, not wanting to shoot at Keith, thinking of how she was once mind-controlled, tried to go for a different tactic. Dave followed. "I distract him you do what you need to do Aria." She chucked an autobomb, a friend for Dave, and bolted off, hoping Keith will follow her. Tina glanced at Keith with rage. "I see how it is. I'm sorry, but..." she pulled out her gun and shot Keith in the foot. Aria ran off and kept focus, making sure TarTar wasn't near the range of battle. Keith stumbled due to the impact of the ink shot, but that shot only pissed him off more. He threw his octoshot on the floor and pulled out some Duallie Squelchers.

Remus watched the fight, inching closer to Alice. Alice watched as well but with a blank expression. "Remus," Alice called. Remus responded with curiosity. "TarTar knows nothing about what my goal is to do. I'm going to let you free for now," Alice informed.

Remus tilted his head "let me... Go?" Remus remained quiet. He was conflicted: frozen.

"How do I know if he's back or not." Tina spots a splotch of ink. "Got it." She goes towards a wall and jumps hoping that he would hit the wall. Keith hit against the wall and fell unconscious. Due to this, his form retreated to 'octopus' form. "Perfect." Tina injected some low tide ink to shut him down. The ink detached from Keith, but there was no response. She hid him in a small compartment. "Now then, time to take care of Alice."

"Why aren't you leaving?" Alice asked Remus, incredulous.

"You're my Priestess: my commander. We stick together no matter what happens, right?" Remus asked.

Alice gasped, caught off guard, but her reaction softened with comfort. "If that's the case, Tina's going to be our hero."

Remus made a small grin "...Thanks"

"...Tina...? It was no lie. Agent 8 is truly gone. I finally finished what I wanted two years ago." Alice taunted.

"But why, you sick fuck, why?!" Tina spat.

"I'm Alice Veronica Becking, that's why." Alice pridefully answered.

With her lungs raw, and her body painted with sweat, she took out her gun from her holster. The hero-shot was focused on Alice's head. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you right now."

"...Because there's one thing I haven't lied about... TarTar must be stopped." Alice reminded coldly.

Tina lowered her gun, a tad lost. "Which side are you on," she inquired, "What are you playing at?!"

"Do me a favor, Tina..." Alice asked.

"What is that?" Tina groaned.

"Shoot here." Alice pointed to her glasses. Aria was watching from a distance, making sure TarTar didn't come back. As such, Tina was tempted to shoot somewhere else. "If I kill you, Fine. If you're really against TarTar, good. Either way, I'm willing to die." Remus wheeled around and aimed at Tina. Due to Remus's threat, Tina relented, now defeated. Wincing, she shot Alice's glasses dead on.


	17. Chapter XVII

It was December 23rd in the morning. The day before the inkbath of TarTar's wrath. It was quiet, cold, skin chilling. Keith was still unconscious. There was a transmitter going off in the main room. "Agent 3? 4? Ei-eight? Anyone?" It was Marie's voice.

Skylar lied down in his room seemingly having a conversation with himself before hearing the transmitter going off. He slipped out of bed and walked towards the main room while holding his head. His eyes had bags under them, and his hair was all messed up. He kept quiet.

Grog entered the room, hearing the transmitter- or rather, Marie's voice. Because of this, he searched for the transmitter "H-hello?"

Aria glanced at the transmitter while holding her Autobomb friend, Dave, in her grasp. After the shell that she'd been through, she really needed his comfort before the final battle. Despite this, she didn't ask for any of it. "Agent 3 is here, come in?" She replied to the voice on the other line, her voice faint.

After some time hiding in the garage, Arianna finally had the courage to open the door inside. She didn't want to answer and simply stared at the transmitter instead.

Lola waddled over to the famous agent 3, her greyscale eyes surveying what was happening. "Ms. 3? What's going on?" She asked, only to receive a weary stare from the agent as an answer.

"O-oh! we got a response?!" Callie asked, excited.

"Thank you, 3. You're our hero. We were searching throughout the place and we couldn't find you... we planned on finding someone, but 4 told us that you were safe. We decided to go through the area. We just got back an-"

"IT SMELLS LIKE ROTTING INK SACKS!" Callie interrupted.

"Who the shell is this?" Arianna asked.

Lola turned to Arianna, "Squid Sisters!"

"O-Oh.." Ari fell silent. She still felt awkward after literally attacking them a while ago.

Grog internally fangirled upon hearing the voices. "W-wowie... Y-yea! Where is Squid Sisters, and what happen?

Agent 3 covered her ears when Callie shouted. "What's happening and where's your location?" She questioned.

Skylar raised an eyebrow "The Squid Sisters huh?... Where have you been!?"

"We just left the Square. We've rallied stray citizens to evacuate the city. We heard about the fight. This girl named 'Mistress V' told us what to do," Callie explained.

"Thank you for helping us," Alice walked over to the transmission, "We'll do our best." she shut it off.

Another Transmitter went off from "Off the Hook."

"Ah... Well... O-ok then." Grog searched around the room, hearing the second transmitter. "H-hello?"

Pearl's voice was heard from the transmitter "Anyone there?" She sounded worried, "Where's Keith? What happened to you guys?" She started flooding the group with questions

Marina chimed in. "Pearl, it's alright, but like she said, where's agent 8?"

"This is Mistress V!" Alice responded, "Agent 8's sister! The boy's fine, he'll just be asleep for a few days."

"Hopefully..." Grog scratches his arm a tad.

"A-asleep?" Marina questioned.

Aria looked away staying quiet. She was engulfed with guilt and denial. "I... guess you can say that," Agent 3 finally responded.

"Remember that drone Keith gave you?" Alice quizzed Marina.

"Yes. I still have the drone. L-let me go get it." Marina stepped away from the transmitter, possibly to go grab said drone. Dave gave off a little beeping sound of curiosity, and after a good moment of waiting, Marina soon came back with the drone. "Alright, found it. What do you need the drone for though?" She asked, puzzled.

"Marina! Listen to this carefully. I want you to hide the drone by Squdmas Eve at 12:00 midnight in any part of the Metro," Alice replied.

Marina nodded, now activating the drone. "Understood. I'll see if I can find some good coordinates by sometime tonight." She responded.

"That should be good." Agent 3 commented.

Marina's mood was chipper. "Alright. I'm going to get started on finding coordinates. I'll see you all later. And remember: Don't get cooked?" she asked

"Stay Off The Hook," Aria answered.

"Goodbye!" Marina soon got offline to do her work.

Skylar stood in the background, hiding from the other agents as he spoke to his 'voice.'

Skylar: you gotta help me here...

?: Lê†'§ måkê å Ðêål, ɏê§?

Skylar: Fine...

?: Wê §hårê, £åïrlɏ †hï§ †ïmê. Ì ¢ðñ†rðl whêñêvêr Ì wåñ† †ð, åñÐ ɏðµ §†åɏ ðñ †hê §ïÐêlïñê µñ†ïl ñêêÐêÐ..." He went quiet and looked back at the agents.

Skylar: "We work in unison for the battle, then we'll see."

?: §ðµñÐ§ gððÐ †ð mê~"

Skylar walked back to the group with a wicked grin and sad eyes. He shot a glance at Grog, his eyes twitched and his grin only grew wider.

Grog makes a grin to try to match Skylar's grin. "So... How friend doing?"

"I'm fine wê'rê gððÐ everything's ålrïgh†," Skylar murmured, then barked, "DON'T TALK TO ME!"

Grog raises his arms in a pathetic defense, being spooked by Skylar "Alright, friend not have to shout at grog!" He pathetically whimpered.

"Oh boy, I better get you out of here, son." Alice dragged Skylar by the ear and tossed him in his room. She came back rubbing her hands, exhausted.

Alice sighed, her eyes inkshot. "You! Octoling girl!"

Arianna twirled her tentacles, spaced out. "Hm? What is it?"

"How close were you to Keith?"

"I mean... not that close, I guess..." Arianna mumbled.

"It's your choice to fight, run away or protect Keith. I'm not your mom, I'm Skylar's." Alice demanded Arianna.

"Okay, okay... I-I'll consider!" Arianna huffed, folded her arms. Arianna headed over to Grog, looking a tiny bit worried. "You good? I heard Skylar shouting at you..."

"Y-yea... grog ok... But, friend is bit... easier to anger," Grog mumbled, "Something might be wrong."

She patted Grog's back gently, almost knocking him over. "Hey, hey, he'll be fine." She folded her arms then stood there awkwardly.

Grog flinches instinctively. "A-alright... grog trust person..." Grog gave a pitiful look. "Does friend know what grog can do to help?"

"Unfortunately not... and I still don't know whether I should fight with the Agents or not..." Arianna admitted.

"Ah. Well... Grog might not have the big smarts... But grog thinks it would be good idea to look at pros and cons of fighting."

"I guess..." she mumbled, pondering.

Grog pats her back. "Well, it ultimately your decision." Grog gave her a warm smile. "Whatever friend decide, grog sure it will be good choice."

She seemed nervous, "I'm scared about making the wrong decision..."

Grog sighed, defeated. "Well... You make it this far, right? You make decision to run away from DJ, which was good, right? Follow heart, and it not steer friend wrong! Grog read that on magazine once."

"I still miss DJ," She admitted quietly.

"I don't have much advice... But... Grog want friend be happy." He sighed once again. "Sorry grog not able fix problem."

"I-It's okay..." she stuttered. "I should probably get more friends too..."

Grog made a robotic bleep. "A... Are we friends?"

"Yeah... I mean... you're another Octarian," She answered, shrugging.

Grog's face was beaming as he hugged his new friend. "Hooray!" Grog giggled like a child.

She gave a side-smile, hesitant but sincere. "I mean, it's a start for making friends..."

"So, what..." He blanks out, "What friends do? Grog... Grog not have many friends.

"I don't know... hang out..?" She mentioned, inviting.

"Alright!" Grog had a big goofy grin on his face "Where hang out"

"Where do you wanna hang out at?" Aria sked.

Grog stops for a moment, puzzled. He raises his finger. "Grog have no idea!"

They soon noticed as they were thinking, that Tina was training with her roller, ready for anything in the hours to come, her entire routine was decent, and her moves were clean. It was much better than how she used to be. The two puzzling Octarians finally had an idea. "Practice? I've only ever used the Octo Shot," Arianna commented, "Maybe try something new?"

Grog nodded. "That good idea! Let's go then!" His excitement grew.

She grinned and rolled her eyes"C'mon."

Curious, Kris decided to call someone. Someone close to him. That inkling girl was practically family to him, to his luck, that girl picked up. "Hello?"

"Hi, Kara!" He greeted.

"O-Oh! OHH! SHIT HI!" she hesitated, "I heard about what happened. I was evacuated a bit ago by the Squid Sisters. I hate to leave the market to fall, but I just hope things get better. So. Squidmas is coming, yes?"

"Mmhmm? Yeah?"

"Well once this hell is over, maybe I send some gifts over for Squidbeak, ya?" Kara asked Kris.

"Yeah that sounds fantastic," Kris sighed, "I miss you, Kara."

"Don't get fucking mopy! I'm your cousin, not your family!" She sassed, "Anyway please, win for us okay?"

"OH? You want me to win? Ohhh shit!"

"Shiiiiiit!" Kara howled, hanging up.

Kris pondered from all that was unraveled. He shook his head, believing that Kara would be alive. She was a strong girl after all. He thought about how she could help, but she's gone already. He noticed Dusk resting well, as Alice held a note over his face and planting it on top of his hat. He stepped over to the kitchen. His priority is His and Skylar's daughter at the moment.

Hiding for about 3 hours, Skylar roamed around the HQ until bumping into Kris, who was feeding Celia, he looked down and held his head again, "Sorry about that..."

Kris almost dropped his E-Liter and a tiny plate of food for Celia, barely catching both. "Yeah, it's fine." He noticed Skylar holding his head, "You alright?"

"... I could be doing better to be honest" Skylar looked up at Kris, towering over Skylar. "hey can I like... Talk with you, preferably in private?"

"Uh... I guess we can talk? And hope ya get better." Skylar grinned at Kris before taking his hand and leading him to his room, Celia shrugged it off and ate.

"Soo... What are we gonna talk about?"

"...Look, the big fight is gonna come up soon and there was something I wanted to get off my chest" Skylar admitted.

"Oh?"

"You see I'm just like, really scared about everything a-and I'm afraid I'll let everyone down. We're all probably gonna die and I'll just be there, cold and alone"

"Hey hey hey! Don't speak like that! You're not gonna let us down, and none of us are gonna die!" Kris insisted

Skylar's eyes were glassy and welled up with tears. "It's just... I'm not a good person, I'm massively flawed and I'm just scared... We're all gonna be forgotten one day and I just want to leave something behind for people to follow, y'know?... Not a legacy or anything, but just a good story that people can look back on... But now with things coming up so quickly, I don't know what to do..."

Kris didn't know how to respond at that point. Rubbing his arms he could do nothing but listen.

Skylar held his head and started weeping. "I've been lonely for so long! Everyone else is so calm about this, and I'm over here slowly losing my mind! I don't know what to do anymore! My happiness is just gone, and it's been replaced with nothing but fear! I'm sorry! I shouldn't have unloaded all this shit onto you, BUT I CAN'T HOLD IT IN!"

He patted Skylar on the back, "...Well... I don't know how to respond to that, because, you know, I'm not really a good person to talk to about stuff. But, all I can really say is, this will be over soon. I'm sure everything will work out in the end. I'm sure your happiness could be restored."

Skylar hugged Kris tight, and after a while, he stopped crying. Kris patted Skylar on the back some more, kinda clueless on how to help people like this. One thing he did know however, was to be there for a friend in need, especially his best friend.

"Kris? Promise me something?"

"Hmm?"

"Promise me you'll look after Celia with me? After the battle, that is?"

"I'll promise you that, Skylar."

Skylar, now feeling that the situation got awkward, pecked Kris' cheek and looked away. Kris was paralyzed with emotions by the surprise of that peck. "I guess there's something else I should tell you..." A small blush formed on his face.

"Uhhuh, what's that?" Kris asked, was still frozen.

"Kris, buddy, broski... I've liked you for a really long time now... Actually, more like loved you," Skylar confessed, "We've taken such good care of the kid, and we've been friends since we went into the academy, and I grew feelings the moment we graduated and became agents."

Kris was trying to find a way to respond. After all, they've gone through, he wasn't sure. Of course, he loved him back, so naturally, he responded with, "Skylar... while I appreciate the feelings... I'm not ready for a relationship thing- if you know what I mean."

Skylar went silent and let go of Kris, he walked out of his room and just left Kris there while finding a hiding spot to cry in.

Right after Skylar bolted out, Kris pitifully reached out to him. "I'm sorry."

Alice trotted through the halls and creaked the door open through Yuri's guest room. Yuri was sitting in a chair. Thoughts streamed through Yuri's head before he finally looked over at Alice with a worried look on his face.

"Are you alright?" Alice asked.

"I need to admit something? I'm scared," Yuri murmured, defeated. After a harsh pause, he raised his voice assertively. "We might all die, The runt's fucking lost it, Inkopolis is in ruins, and TarTar is actually winning!"

"TarTar's winning, but we're not AI," Alice countered, "We're free cephalopods, with racing thoughts and moral full of platinum."

"Well yes! But my point still stands! TarTar is stronger than ever, and he basically has an army at his command while we're just cephalopods! That's it!" Yuri protested.

"I don't care if we're just cephalopods. I know what he's capable of. I've dealt with him more than I wanted to, and it was worth it, why? Because I learned his weakness~" Alice informed. "We're all fighting for something. The Squidbeak Platoon fights for honor, I fight for no other than myself, That octoling fights for her own survival, and that Octostamp fights for his freedom. What will you fight for?" Alice asked him.

Yuri grew quiet before answering Alice's question. "If you want an honest answer, fine. I never said this to anyone, and I never will again, but I'll admit it. I fight for my new family: Skylar, you, Remus- we've always been there for each other, and even though I don't say anything a and things fell apart. Skylar ran away first. Remus lost himself in the metro, and you just... You got sanitized before my eyes. Tartar has taken everything away from me, I just got everyone back. I can't lose you again, Alice. I can't lose anyone again."

"Don't be a snowflake." Alice scolded, "It's a losing battle, yes, but the war isn't over."

"Using my own words against me huh?... Alright, fine." Yuri gave Alice a tight squeeze. "Just promise me you'll be safe during the battle... Please?"

Alice thought for a moment, then replied with "I'm not one for safety, but I guess for your own sanity I will." Alice kissed Yuri on the forehead, "We're going in there, and we're getting out with exactly what we want."

"... Agreed."

After a long day of preparation. Alice stepped over to Skylar's room. "Skylar are you there? I know you're sniffling."

"Yeah come in..."

Once Alice opened the door, she stood there in front of him. "I found this while I was gone in the Metro." It was a lancer sword. "Think of it as a Squidmas present." Skylar toyed around with the blade and smiled as Alice left the room. Skylar sighed, and as he put his sword away, he lied down and rocked himself to sleep.

-  
At 11:45 pm, he hears faint sniffles and whimpers in a distant room. The fatherly figure Skylar jolted upward and searched for the source. It was behind Celia's door, he barged open, and a high pitch squeal escaped from his daughter.

"Shhh it's okay," Skylar hushed, "It's okay."

"Daddy?" Celia whimpered.

"Had a nightmare?" he asked.

Celia nodded. As such, Skylar sat down. "I'm sorry I haven't been around, Celia. You probably prefer your other dad, don't you?"

"No, I just miss you, Dad," Celia admitted, "I heard you crying. Are you okay?"

"Everything's fine... for now," Skylar lied, "Can you sleep on your own?"

"I'm... I'm not sure," Celia mumbles.

"...I never really had parents, Celia, just Yuri," Skylar started, "but there was one time I snuck into his room, and I noticed some diary entries in his room. I noticed a poem, and I memorized it, and... It was a song soon after."

"Oh?"

"I sing it to myself, every time I have a nightmare," Skylar admitted, "That embarrassing, ya?"

Celia didn't respond, she just laid down, still shivering.

"Ya know what? Screw it, I'll sing it for you," Skylar grumbled.

"O...okay." She whimpered.

Skylar huffed, then starting singing:

"Goodnight my angel time to close your eyes, and save these questions for another day. I think I know what you've been asking me...

"I think you know what I've been trying to say, I promise I will never leave you. And you should always know wherever you may go, no matter where you are... I will never be far away

"Goodnight my angel now it's time to sleep, there's still so many things I want to say... remember all the songs we sang for you, when we were resting on that golden day...

"And like a boat out on the ocean... I'm rocking you to sleep... the water will be dark and deep, inside this ancient heart, you'll always be a part of me...

"Goodnight my angel now it's time to dream, and dream how wonderful your life will be... Someday your child will cry and if you sing this lullaby... Then in your heart there will always be a part... of... me..."


	18. Chapter XVIII

Squidmas Eve's bells were loud sirens that played over all of inkopolis. Instead of marching elves, the ground shook by the marching of sanitized soldiers. The Squidmas lights were now blazes of flame and instead of presents, Santa left heavy smoky fog around Inkopolis. The city was dying, and any inhabitants and citizens who either were left behind, or ignored the warnings only met a gruesome fate. The soldiers kept marching until they reached the square. Peace was never an option; this was now war.

Alice watched from afar. She noticed there was some struggle of the marching once they spread their havoc closer to the Squidbeak HQ. Traitor Sanitized Octolings, also known as Alice's army, held back as much as they could. Once the struggle's ties loosened, Alice called out to her robot. "Null... Activate," like a light switch, Null activated and stood by her side.

In spite of all that was happening, and how early it was, there was no room for rest.

Alice didn't stand alone with Null for long. Kris was battle-ready. He pridefully stood with his red Agent 9 gear with his specially adjusted E-Liter 4K. He cocked it, waiting. "Welp, Final Battle, and it'll be a fucking mess." Kris super jumped to the top of the HQ for a better look, then pulled out his phone, typing a number in. It was answered, so he smiled then hung up. "Merry Squidmas, Alice."

"Of course, Merry Squidmas," Alice responded, her expression was plucky as always.

"Merry Squidmas!" A squid kid ran up to the few.

"Dusk?!" Alice exclaimed. Dusk didn't care. He only wanted to waddle over and hug her tightly, he nodded before hugging Kris, then Null.

"And that's everyone!" Dusk announced as a bright smile beamed across his face before leaving.

Lucas shouted confused by the situation they were currently in, "Okay, what the fuck! Someone explain what's going on right now!"

Grog, who was the absolutely fearless male specimen he was, hugged his dynamo tight, terrified.

"Aight fuck it. I'm getting the bot," Lucas then ran to a bunker where he'd been keeping the Robot mech he retrieved from Octo valley. He powered it on and the lights flickered red "Lets fucking DO THIS!" He waited for a sign.

Lola, Aria, and Dave prepared themselves for the worst. Lola was gifted agent gear from the Squid Sisters. She would be known as Agent CB from now on, and as for the Fearsome Agent 3? She had a heavy heart which she suppressed. She hugged Dave tightly.

Marina's drone took off from the location in the metro. "Alright, Mistress V, The drone is set in place! Let's do this!"

Over inkopolis Square, a large shadow formed. From the sky, Lucas, in the Octarian mech, flew down and began using its giant fists to wipe out a large number of sanitized octolings

A couple of yellow custom ink storms appear above the square, striking with ink lightning, just waiting to pierce the sanitized octolings.

Alice noticed them getting closer, a tad too close. "Everyone ready?!" Null looked up at Alice, nuzzling her.

"Commander..." Null murmured.

"Read you loud and clear!" Yuri responded via intercom.

"Roger that," Agent 3 responded.

"I'll stay here right?" Celia asked, "With Keith?"

Dusk wanted to clarify. "And I protect the HQ? Yes?"

"Looks like everyone's on the same page," Alice had some relief as most of the stress was now off of her shoulders. "LET'S GET WHAT WAS TAKEN FROM US!"

Lucas's Mech was first to charge forth. "WHO WANTS SOME? I'LL KICK ALL YOUR ASSES!" Lucas shouted at the Army of Octolings while sending out bombs, missiles, a laser beam somehow, and of course the giant fists of the suit.

Skylar didn't speak, he coughed every now and then from the smoke flying into the air from the now burning city. He took the sword strapped to his back and super jumped to the square where he began to fight off TarTar's sanitized soldiers.

Kris was picking off sanitized soldiers, one by one.

Sun super jumped to the bot and flung bombs while on top of the Octobot King.

Grog flung ink in a large circle around himself. "HYYYAAAAAA," He was getting hurt.

"Uhhh shit. What if I? AHA!" There was a loud roar as a huge octo stomp came running into the battlefield. It's face split into three before jumping and utterly destroying anything in its path. Lucas clicked a button on the Controls and epic final battle music blasts out of the speakers. "I GOT THE OCTOSTOMP!" Lucas punches the Octostomp.

Grog stares at the Octostomp "OH OK THEN!" he dived out of the way "WHY OCTOSTOMP FIGHTING GROG?! GROG ALSO OCTOSTAMP!" Grog decided to distract the big Octostomps as much as he could, running in between them to see if they'd run into each other.

Kris super jumped to another building to get a greater angle to pick off soldiers, until that Octostomp came, "Oh shit, oh fuck."

Aria's special was prepared, but instead of her usual that came along with the Hero Dualies, it was something more. It was clearly upgraded. "ALRIGHT! TIME FOR THE DAVE WAVE!" She lobbed a bunch of dave auto bombs at the Sanitized Octolings, each one following different targets. Dave, the original, led his fellow Daves to victory. Lola decided to aid with some bombs of her own: Curling bombs. This was her special. The Dave Wave would splat anything in their path. Aria and Lola soon joined Dave to victory.

"HEY BROS CHECK THIS OUT!" Lucas forced the Octostomp's mouth open and threw a bomb inside, destroying it from the inside. "GO MISSILES!" Lucas sent missiles out and cleared out a large area.

Alic shot some shock waves at the long-dead octolings. She hoped she can take TarTar on personally. "Take them out as much as you can! I'M GOING IN MYSELF!"

In a flash, Skylar appeared in front of Alice. "I'm coming with you!"

She glared at her potentially soon to be son, caught off guard, then sighed. "Very well... Anyone else?!"

There was a loud bang and a blinding light before Yuri showed up in front of Alice with Remus clinging onto his back "We're going too!"

"And me!" responded Kris, still shooting as much as they could.

"ALRIGHT THEN!" Alice replied. "Let's go!"

As Alice's troops and her company march forth, the Octostomp exploded into a shower of ink and shrapnel.

"FEEL THE WRATH OF A PISSED OFF NERD WITH A GIANT ROBOT!" Lucas punched the shit out of the waves of the dead citizens from long ago.

Aria punched a Sanitized Octoling at some point due to it being way too close to her. "I'm not someone to flirt with, you scrubs!" she taunted.

Agent CB continued to shoot out as much as she could.

Grog flailed his weapon off the side of the bot, flinging ink on the ground below to kill any unfortunate enemy. He noticed Arianna. "Friend decided to fight?"

Arianna nodded, "I'm fighting for Squidbeak until this is over... for Keith, and for you!" She responded with pride and super jumped onward to fight.

Sun special was also ready so he jumped to Lucas's bot and prepares his own special "Inknova..." he chanted. A nuke landed from the sky making a gargantuan yellow ink explosion that clears a lot of SO.

Lucas' tentacles glow a bright red, signaling his special was ready. "DOUBLE KILLER WAIL!" Lucas opens the Robot's fists revealing two 'killer wails,' and he fired both wails simultaneously.

Arianna was staying near the back, charging and shooting multiple enemy octolings with the same charge, then blew her new splattling due to how warm it was.

"Hey... Is it just me or is there more SO than when we started?" Lucas screamed seeing the Octoshower "OH SHIT ITS A BOSS"

"Holy...shit..." Aria stared at a now appearing giant Octostomp. She then gets an idea. She found the original 'Dave Wave' and pressed a small button. In seconds, Dave grew larger than before. "Go, my friend! GO!" Her hair turned orange as well, her Inner Agent 3 showing its true colors.

The Octoshower, though being damaged, grabbed Sun and chucked him at the bot. Then the Octoshower sent some of the slow, attackable missiles at the bot.

"OH SHIT IT'S THE G-MAX DAVE. YOU'RE IN TROUBLE NOW!" Lucas taunted, now ecstatic.

Inner Agent 3 hopped onto G-Max Dave as he began to march forward. "Let's do this!" She cried.

"YEET!" Lucas responded, throwing some unfamiliar bombs to make a vortex of ink around them.

As the heroes of Inkopolis were in a fearsome battle, Alice, Yuri, Remus, Kris, and Null all finally went into the heart of the metro. It was hushed and gloomy. "So there's no one here...?" Remus asked. They all looked around the vacant room.

The room brightened up a bit more revealing TarTar's body hanging from the ceiling. Tiny neon blood-red lights pierced through the room.

"Oh shit, Tartar's gotten big," Kris whispers.

Tartar turned to the group. "₴Ø... ɎØɄ ₥₳ĐɆ ł₮"

"Did you miss me~?" Alice asked playfully.

"ĐɆ₱Ɇ₦Đ₴, ĐØ ł ₩₳₦₮ ₳ ⱠɎł₦₲ ฿₳₵₭₴₮₳฿฿ł₦₲ ₣ⱤɆ₳₭ Ø₣ ₦₳₮ɄⱤɆ ł₦ ₥Ɏ ⱧØ₥Ɇ?... ₦Ø, ₦Ø ł ĐØ₦'₮" TarTar coldly answered.

"Aww come on~ you know you love me~ No need to get worked up." She spoke as if she was talking with her ex, as pulls out her laser gun.

Skylar's birthday present was unsheathed. His sword was ready for ink.

TarTar chuckled wickedly, now examining the group. "ⱠɆ₮'₴ ₴ɆɆ... ₩Ɇ Ⱨ₳VɆ ₳ ₮Ɽ₳ł₮ØⱤ, ₳ ฿ⱤɆ₳₭ɆⱤ Ø₣ ⱧɆ₳Ɽ₮₴, ₥Ɏ ₱Ɇ₮, ₳ ₣₳łⱠɆĐ ł₦VɆ₦₮ØⱤ"

"...heartbreaker?" Kris muttered, his face now in shame

Tartar descended to give a closer look at Skylar, its wires now like tentacles. "₳₦Đ ₳ ₴Ʉ฿JɆ₵₮ Ø₣ ɎɆ₳Ɽ₴ ₱₳₴₮, ₴Ʉ₵Ⱨ ₳ ₴Ⱨ₳₥Ɇ... ł Ⱨ₳Đ ₴Ʉ₵Ⱨ Ⱨł₲Ⱨ ɆӾ₱Ɇ₵₮₳₮łØ₦₴ ₣ØⱤ ɎØɄ"

"Traitor? I was NEVER on your side TarTar~ I'm technically on no side. I could truly kill my own flesh and blood at any moment~" Alice informed.

"₩ⱧɎ ₳₥ ł ₦Ø₮ ₴ɄⱤ₱Ɽł₴ɆĐ" TarTar played a slow clap sound effect before reeling back.

"I'm just here to tear you down to our level," Alice explained, "You say you're an emotionless AI but there's someone close to you, is there~?"

TarTar loomed above the group. "ł Ⱨ₳VɆ ₦Ø Ø₦Ɇ ₵ⱠØ₴Ɇ ₮Ø ₥Ɇ, ł'VɆ ฿ɆɆ₦ ₳ⱠØ₦Ɇ ₳ⱠⱠ ₥Ɏ ɆӾł₴₮Ɇ₦₵Ɇ"

"Is that so~ Then why are you doing this?" Alice asked, now clever.

"ł'₥ ₥ɆⱤɆⱠɎ Đł₴₲Ʉ₴₮ɆĐ ฿Ɏ ɎØɄⱤ ₭ł₦Đ. ⱤɆ₳ⱠⱠɎ? ₴₮₳Ɽ₮ł₦₲ ฿₳₮₮ⱠɆ₴ ØVɆⱤ ₴Ʉ₵Ⱨ Ⱡł₮₮ⱠɆ ₮Ⱨł₦₲₴," He spat.

"Ah~ but you were created." Alice mentioned, 'You weren't just existing in the dust," Alice added, "You miss him... do you?"

"... Ⱨł₥?... ĐØ ₦Ø₮ ₴₱Ɇ₳₭ Ø₣ Ⱨł₥" His tentacles-like wires reeled back.

"We why not~" Alice quizzed, "Are you just dying to meet him again? You admitted yourself you were lonely."

"₩ⱧɆⱤɆ ₳ⱤɆ ɎØɄ ₱Ⱡ₳Ɏł₦₲ ₳₮... ₳Ⱡł₵Ɇ VɆⱤØ₦ł₵₳ ฿Ɇ₵₭ł₦₲"

"...Commander TarTar. If you appease, we'll take you out quickly and painless. We both know if you erase your memory of him, your mission would seem meaningless, would it?" Alice explained. "So you have two choices... Avenge him and lose, or join your master in peace and lose."

"ł ₩łⱠⱠ ₦Ø₮ ₴Ʉ฿JɆ₵₮ ₮Ø ₳ ฿Ɇł₦₲ ⱠØ₩ɆⱤ ₮Ⱨ₳₦ ₥Ɇ, ₳₥ ł ₳ JØ₭Ɇ ₮Ø ɎØɄ?" TarTar asked disgusted

Skylar chuckled "... Ɏê§"

"Very much so," Alice answered.

Kris snorted.

TarTar sighed "₦Ø ₥₳₮₮ɆⱤ" He pushed the group into a transparent container, leaving Alice in the open, alone with TarTar. To her and the group's surprise, they could do nothing as giant metal rods extended from the walls, all impaling Alice.

Alice glared down at her chest, then looked up as she saw her new family. She started from Yuri, the man who she had loved who was now knelt down in grief. Next was Remus, her servant, bashing through the container with his bare hands. She eyeballed Skylar, Yuri's adopted son with a shady grin on his face, yet heartbroken eyes, tears across his face. And finally, Kris who watched in horror. Alice's eyes watered, with a warm chuckled. "A cheap kill huh...? so cute..."

The rods retracted, leaving Alice's body on the floor, her remains now scattered across the room. The container was released, and her family was now on their knees. "₦Ø₩, ⱠɆ₮'₴ Ⱨ₳VɆ ₳ ₣₳łⱤ ₥₳₮₵Ⱨ"

"CMON ONLY TWO BOSSES LEFT. WE JUST NEED TO ENDURE!" Lucas shouted.

Tina inked the toaster and climbed up it, "Got it" She fired another ink strike at the other boss, yelling a battle cry that pierced through iron. Sun kept laughing maniacally, his hyper bombs everywhere. Lucas then blasted an Off the Hook and Squid Sisters Mashup on his speakers to hype everyone up. Tina flipped off the oven and onto the other boss, then glared at Lucas "Hype... music?"

"I'm more into Taylor Squiff but heh," Sun commented, deadpanned.

"You have terrible taste," Lucas scolded.

The octo oven tried to shake tina off, after losing a life. Grog fell out of the hole in the building he was now tossed into, falling to the ground with ink dripping out of his lips. He brushed it off and kept true.

The octo samurai wheeled its way around opposing attacks, being the last boss.

"BITCH THIS IS REVENGE" He shouted at the Octo Samurai really angry for some reason

"Go, Dave...you know what to do." Inner Agent 3 leaped off of G Max Dave as it went up to the Octo Samurai, splatting it by self-destruction. Tina rode her G-Max curling bomb around, squashing the bosses while shooting a big killer wail. "That's the last of em right?"

Thankfully, the original Dave shook its body off and emerged out from the ink. Inner Agent 3's hair retreated to her original light blue color. "Good job, buddy." She picked up the Autobomb, patting it.

Everyone seemed safe. Lola had quite a few injuries as well as Grog. They started patching each other up.

Seeing that everyone was fine, he called up through the universal intercom."Bois who needs back up?" he asked for anyone to respond.

"Us," Kris spoke back to Lucas meekly.

"Where are you then?" Lucas asked.

"I'll just... fucking... send you our location." Kris monotoned. He pressed a few buttons on his intercom which sent their coordinates to Lucas.

"Aight, thanks" Lucas thanked.

"We'll be there in a few seconds," Tina confirmed.

Lucas switches off his intercom. "Who wants to kill a goopy bitch?"

"Everyone hop on." Lucas pressed a hyper-speed button," Let's kill this bitch!"

"Hop in" Tina demanded. Lucas flew the Bot into the metro and went to the location of Kris and the others.

As the message was clear, Kris stepped out, his E-Liter aimed at TarTar.

"YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" Remus booked it, shooting blindly with his octoshot, his rage relentless.

Null lunged over and hopped on his back, only for TarTar to toss them across the room. Null was immediately shut down.

Lucas blasted through a wall with his missiles

"You called?" He asked making an entrance.

Arianna grinned, rolling her eyes. "Don't think that entrance was needed."

"Oh come on, you always gotta enter with style" Lucas countered.

"Just fucking kill him," Kris demanded Lucas, numb. Sun leaped off the octobot once a group of sanitized octolings marched into the room and began shooting anything that moved.

Tina started shooting with the installed mini wails.

Arianna stayed in the Bot and started to prepare her splattling. "This? This'll be much more interesting~"

Grog inhales, the passive healing thing inklings and octolings do taking effect. Grog throws himself off the robot, flailing his dynamo roller.

TarTar darted his eyes, examining his new targets. "₩ɆⱠⱠ ₮ⱧɆ₦..."

Yuri stepped out of the elevator, finally gathering a bit of stoicism to fight, and helped Kris take out any stray guards. Tina kept letting out a melting battle cry while she shot a mega inkzooka toward the guards and Tartar.

"Eat this you slimy son of a bitch!" Lucas launched a fist at tartar.

Tina eyed Lucas, she pointed towards TarTar's eye. "Trust me on this. Yeet me in a spinning punch." She then hopped inside the Octobot's hand.

"Uh... Alright?" Lucas sent off a spinning fist with Tina on it. Tina pulled out a knife and pierced straight through the eye. TarTar roared, and started to sputter about. "Holy Shit Tina, you're a badass!" Lucas praised, Tina gave a wink, and continued to shank it.

Seeing everyone not even noticing Alice's absence, Kris watched the battle unfold until his phone started to go off. He noticed it was his 'daughter.' Anxious he answered, before dodging an inky bullet, "Celia?!"

"I'm babysitting Keith! I just wanted to update you all!" Celia responded, "Dusk's condition is perfect. No one was lucky enough to attack the base."

"Celia, are you safe?" He dodges another inky bullet, plugging one of his ears.

"Yes." Celia answered, "You're coming back right? You and Skylar? You are my parents after all..."

TarTar sighed "ł'₥ ₲Ɇ₮₮ł₦₲ ₴ł₵₭ Ø₣ ₮Ⱨł₴" A spike impaled Skylar's chest and held him up into the air, using the bottom of the spike to block Lucas's attack.

"Yes, Celia, we-" He now blanked out, watching Skylar getting impaled.

Grog saw what happened, freezing up. "S... Skylar...?"

"SKYLAR NO!" Lucas screamed.

Tina got hit by some debris going half-blind in one eye. "Skylar No!"

Aria and Lola noticed the battle with Skylar being impaled. "Skylar!" they squealed in unison.

Kris hung up on Celia, "SKYLAR!"

Yuri stopped to see his son get stabbed while TarTar promptly flung Skylar into a pile of rubble. Completely defeated, he plopped down, refusing to fight. "Not both..." he murmured scrambling himself up to rush towards him, "NOT BOTH!"

"₴Ʉ₵Ⱨ ₳ ₩₳₴₮Ɇ" TarTar taunted.

Kris looked at Skylar in dread. Prying out Skylar out of the rubble. Yuri and Kris both teared up. "Skylar, no." Kris held Skylar's hand, rubbing it with his thumb. "Skylar, buddy?"

Skylar looked up at Kris, ink dripping down his mouth "Kris?" Skylar slowly raised his hand and caressed Kris' cheek

"It's gonna be alright, it's gonna be alright." Kris starts tearing up.

"St-stop messing the fuck around!" Yuri scolded.

"Skylar... I love you..." Kris started crying.

Skylar gave off a weak smile, then let go of Kris' cheek "love you to Kris... take care of Celia for me... Yeah?" He pushed Kris away, not after his ink sprayed all over Kris and Yuri.

Agent 3 started hyperventilating, "Yuri? What happened to Alice...?" she asked, her answer was a defeated and emotionless face. Aria's hair color turned orange yet again, turning back into Inner Agent 3. "I will not...let you...HURT ANOTHER ONE OF MY FRIENDS AGAIN!" She took her Hero Dualies and charge up to him and shot full of rage.

Arianna's eyes twitched. "NO TIME FOR FUCKING CRYING!" Arianna shot blindly with her splattling.

"EAT A DICK!" Lucas launched both of the bot's fists aggressively.

Tina jumped onto TarTar trying to aim for a weak spot to stab him. Tina stabs tartar in a hole she eventually discovered, causing TarTar's wires to loosen up, now hanging about. Aria shot the wires and the guards who started rushing in shortly after. Arianna blinded him with her splattling before Lucas finally gave TarTar a direct punch in the face. After the destruction that was caused, he was merely immobilized. Yuri turned to Kris, "Let him, I'm not equipped enough." He held onto Remus tightly, who was exhausted from the fighting, then looked at the now destroyed Null.

"Grog's friends all agree?" Grog asked, quietly. They all nodded in unison.

"Kris?" Agent 3 called.

"Yes...?" Kris murmured, wiped out.

"Kris kill him..." Tina told him, "You deserve the kill." Lucas deactivated the machine, and everyone stood back.

"We'll report what happened... Keep in touch." Agent CB requested.

"Yes, Mr. Kris... good luck." Lola signed off. They retreated, as Yuri scooted over to the parts and pieces of Null and scooped them up.

TarTar's body had been ripped and torn to shreds after the agent's attacks, he hung from a few single cables and his head drooped to ground level

Kris stood by Tartar's head, his face full of hatred for him.

TarTar tried to lift itself up but his cables struggled from the weight and snapped making his body drop to the ground with a loud metallic thud "₲Ø ₳ⱧɆ₳Đ... ĐØ ł₮"

Kris raised his E-Liter, and thrust the barrel through the eye of Tartar, going through to the floor. Kris approaches Tartar, dragging his E-Liter along the floor.

TarTars body hung limply from only a few cables, he raised his head up to look at Kris straight on

His face was full of hatred, "Tartar..."

"₭Ɽł₴..." There was the sound of grinding steel as one of TarTars last robotic hands moved to block his head. With a roar like that of the Deep Sea Metro's many bosses, TarTar reeled it's body back once more, the shrapnel of metal fell off and the tangle of wires loosened revealing a vaguely humanoid form. But this was different, it face was covered in sanitized ink and it wore a lab coat and military-style pants and boots. Two bright eyes blared from beneath the layer of sanitized ink covering the figure's face.

"Oh shit." Kris dodged the metal shrapnel. He looked at the figure.

"₴Ø... ₩Ɇ ₥ɆɆ₮ ₣₳₵Ɇ ₮Ø ₣₳₵Ɇ" The figure dropped to the floor, wires, and cables attached to its skin. They slowly walked towards Kris, looming above him. The being known as TarTar had revealed its true form, and now. It wasn't going to show any mercy

Kris was internally panicking but kept his cool in check. In spite of his morality, he had to finish this. "Yes, we do..."

The figure leaned down to meet Kris eye to eye "ɎØɄⱤ ฿ØɎ₣ⱤłɆ₦Đ ł₴ ĐɆ₳Đ... ɎØɄⱤ ₱ⱤɆ₵łØɄ₴ ₳₲Ɇ₦₮₴ ₳ⱤɆ₦'₮ ⱧɆⱤɆ ₮Ø ₴₳VɆ ɎØɄ... ⱧɆⱠ₱ ₥Ɇ ⱤɆ฿ɄłⱠĐ ₥Ɏ Ɇ₥₱łⱤɆ, ØⱤ ₱ɆⱤł₴Ⱨ ₳₮ ₥Ɏ Ⱨ₳₦Đ," The figure put both of its hands-on Kris' shoulders.

Kris backed away, "I would rather eat shit than join you."

TarTar tsked, "ØⱧ ₭Ɽł₴... ₭Ɽł₴, ₭Ɽł₴, ₭Ɽł₴... ɎØɄ ĐØ₦'₮ Ʉ₦ĐɆⱤ₴₮₳₦Đ ₮ⱧɆ ł₥₱ØⱤ₮₳₦₵Ɇ Ø₣ ₮Ⱨł₴." He stepped back, eyeing his E-Liter "Ⱨ₥₥... ɎØɄ ₳ⱤɆ₦'₮ ₲Øł₦₲ ₮Ø ₴ⱧØØ₮ ₥Ɇ? ł'₥ ₩łĐɆ Ø₱Ɇ₦!" His voice was clearer, yet it was raspy. He sounded... sophisticated, but at the same time insane. Kris's process was fragile and irrational, so he super jumped over to Tartar, and took a shot at his head and landed on an upper platform. The shot was absorbed into TarTar's face of sanitized ink. He let off a low deep chuckle "ɎØɄ ₮Ⱨł₦₭ ₳ ₴ł₥₱ⱠɆ ₴ⱧØ₮ ₮Ø ₮ⱧɆ ฿₳₵₭ Ø₣ ₥Ɏ ⱧɆ₳Đ ₩łⱠⱠ ₭łⱠⱠ ₥Ɇ..." He walked under Kris' platform and looked up at him "₵Ø₥Ɇ ĐØ₩₦ ⱧɆⱤɆ ₳₦Đ ₣ł₲Ⱨ₮ ₥Ɇ Ⱡł₭Ɇ ₳ ⱤɆ₳Ⱡ ₥₳₦"

He jumped back down, 'Oh cod, what do I do' The thud of TarTar's footsteps echoed through the room. He took off at a running pace towards Kris and swung his fist, trailing wires and cables behind him like some sick, twisted octopus abomination. Kris barely dodged and managed to get another shot on Tartar, "Oh shit, oh fuck." The shot knocked TarTar back a few paces, he clutched his gut before grabbing a cable attached to his skin and flinging it at Kris like a whipThe whip knocked the E-Liter out of his hand. Kris tackled Tartar, as beads of sweat now poured down his face. TarTar fell on his back after being tackled. He grabbed Kris' head and headbutted it before making his own eyes shine brighter than before and looking straight into Kris's eyes, attempting to blind him. Kris just closed his eyes, "Checkmate." Then blindly punched TarTar in his eye. TarTar roared once more before getting up and flinging his wires at Kris, leaving lashes on his skin. He seethed in pain, "Oh shit, oh fuck." Kris put up his fists. TarTar chuckled before putting up his own fists and swinging at Kris once more, trailing his makeshift whips behind his punches. One of the makeshift whips nicked his cheek. TarTar flattened his hands and hit Kris's ears. His vision was affected in some way that made him very confused, so he swung blindly. TarTar, now seeing his chance, he threw an uppercut at Kris who stumbled backward, away from Tartar, but his vision went back to normal.

TarTar backed away, keeping his eye on Kris "ⱠɆ₳VɆ ฿Ɇ₣ØⱤɆ ₮Ⱨł₴ ₲Ɇ₮₴ ₥Ɇ₴₴Ɏ ɎØɄ łĐłØ₮ł₵ ₵Ɇ₱Ⱨ₳ⱠØ₱ØĐ!"

"Nah." He chuckled, somehow finding his E-Liter with his foot. TarTar, now growing frustrated and tired of the situation picked up a piece of shrapnel and held it like a shiv before charging at Kris with his makeshift knife out in front of him. Kris popped up his E-Liter and used the main body as a shield against the makeshift knife. TarTar snarled and scratched at the E-Liter with his knife before attempting to pull it away using his wires as whips again. Kris managed to use the pulling to his advantage and oriented the E-Liter so the barrel was facing Tartar. He ran at Tartar full speed, using the barrel as a bayonet and forced the barrel into Tartar's body, coming out the other side. TarTar tried pulling the E-Liter out but failed, blood poured from the wound as the ink that covered his face cleared up showing a fairly young looking humanoid face. He dropped to the ground and kept clawing at the E-Liter to no effect. The color drained from his eyes as he lied down on the floor. TarTar had finally met his fate and died in his home: The Metro, then his form burst.

Kris looked at Tartar's corpse and pulled out his E-Liter. "It's always a strange death. Why do we splat?"


	19. Chapter XIX

\- Six years later-

It was Squidmas Day. The Squidbeak's name was back in its former glory as of the Heroes of Inkopolis. Some things have been rebuilt, and some new, but things have changed of course. Only a few Residents of Squidbeak remained.

"Agent 3?" Marie asked, handing Aria a small card addressed to her. "Something came in the mail.'

"Y-yeah..." she responded, dead. She opened the card as a scattered piece of paper flew out. "Hm?" she plucked it off the ground. She started to read it.

_"If anyone's reading this, I'll be visiting everyone who has left, and anyone who remains in squidbeak. I regret being asleep that night. I learned about what happened. About my only other family member being gone, and about my beloved friend dying. I could have stopped it of course, but it wasn't in my control. After years of being off the grid, I finally forgave myself, so I'll be visiting everyone this year."_

_"Aria's Note"_

_"I met Yuri around New Years. He was working on Alice's broken down robot with Remus. The then Null was renamed "Becking Toyoshi." They said they might as well cherish anything that kept Alice's legacy. They never forgot about Skylar: who wouldn't?"_

_"Kris is dating again after 4 years: no luck. He missed Skylar the most. However, that wasn't his priority. He takes care of Celia alongside with Kara, his cousin. Celia has grown so much. I can't believe she's turning 17 this year."_

_"Arianna wasn't there when I tried finding her, I guess she left the valley, but I felt a chilling presence during my time there."_

Aria heard the doorbell, as Callie raced to get it. Once Callie opened it, she gave out an ink bleeding screech, and unintelligible words coming out of her mouth. Aria shrugged it off and continued to read.

_"Off the hook never changed."_

_"That leaves you, Aria... I wonder what you've been doing while I was gone. And I'm wondering if we can give this relationship another shot"_

_"My Ferocious 3"_

_"~ 8."_

Aria folded the note and stepped upstairs to her room, placing it on her desk, unlike most of her room, that place was the cleanest. She sighed, lying down on her side away from the door. "You still like me?" Aria spoke to herself, a small blue flush ran across her face. There was a knock on her door. She opened it slightly. Aria was greeted with an octoling: A pink-haired, asymmetric eyed Octoling with a blush all over his face. "K-Keith...?"


End file.
